Tenth Tale Of a Wealthy Merchant and a Poor Man #2
Among those who used to come to see the poor man’s daughter on account of her exceptional beauty were noblemen, whom she pleased greatly.
Her beauty was such an extraordinary wonder to them because it was no human beauty.
It occurred to these noblemen that they should arrange a marriage for her.
One of the nobles had a son, and he desired to arrange a match between her and his own son.
But the rest of the noblemen thought a 101 match with such a poor family was beneath their fellow nobleman’s dignity.
To that end, they lobbied for the poor man’s status to be elevated, and they saw to it that he would serve the emperor’s court.
First he became a lieutenant, and then higher and higher he rose.
They saw to his speedy ascent until he became a general.
Then, at last, all the noblemen wished to arrange a marriage with him.
But there were many noblemen with the same desire since they had all worked hard to elevate him to that end.
Moreover, the erstwhile poor man could not arrange such a match because of the merchant, as a match had previously been agreed with him.
The poor man who had become a general went on to greater and greater success.
The emperor dispatched him to fight in his wars, and each time he was victorious.
So the emperor kept promoting him to ever loftier heights.
At last, the emperor died. The whole country then decided the formerly poor man should be appointed emperor.
All the noble electors assembled and agreed that he should be the emperor, so he became the emperor.
He waged wars and was victorious. He conquered countries and waged further wars, in all of which he was victorious.
He kept capturing countries until all other countries peaceably submitted to him, because they saw that his capacity for victory was very great, that all the world’s bounty and all the world’s good fortune were with him.
All their kings gathered together and agreed that he should be emperor of the entire world.
And they presented him his mandate inscribed in golden letters.
The emperor no longer wished to arrange a marriage with the merchant, for it was beneath the dignity of an emperor to 102 arrange a match with the family of a merchant.
But his wife, the empress, would not forsake the merchant.
The emperor saw that he could not arrange a new match for his daughter because of the merchant, especially since his wife was so steadfast in her loyalty to him.
So he began to devise plots against the merchant.
At first, he thought to impoverish him and devised stratagems to make it seem he was not involved in such plots.
And an emperor can surely do such things.
The merchant was made to keep suffering losses and haemorrhaging money until he was reduced to poverty and had become an utterly destitute man.
The empress, however, remained steadfast in her support for the merchant.
The emperor then realized that as long as the merchant’s son lived, he could make no other marriage match for his daughter.
So he intervened to put an end to the young man and devised stratagems to do so.
He circulated slanders about him and appointed judges to indict him.
The judges understood that it was the emperor’s will that the young man be done away with, so they issued their sentence that he be put in a sack and cast into the sea.
The empress’s heart was most distressed at this, but even an empress can do nothing in defiance of an emperor.
So she went to the men who were charged with throwing him into the sea and fell at their feet, pleading with them to let him go for her sake.
Why should he be put to death? She implored them to take some other condemned prisoner and throw him into the sea instead and let the young man go.
She convinced them, and they swore to her that they would let him go.
And that they did. They took another person and threw him into the sea, then they released 103 the young man and told him, Go now, go!
And he fled far away. He was, after all, a sensible young man.
Before the young man had escaped his sentence, the empress had called her daughter and told her, My daughter, you must know that the merchant’s son is your betrothed.
She went on to tell her the whole story of what had happened to her, saying, The merchant risked himself for my sake.
We hid in seven watery places and each time I swore by God that nothing I possessed would be refused him.
I took those seven places as witnesses. So you, my most precious, my fortune and happiness, your life is surely indebted to him, and his son is your betrothed.
Because of his arrogance, your father wants to murder him.
I have intervened to save him and convinced his executioners to let him go.
That is why you must know that he is your intended bridegroom and that you must not take any other.
She accepted what her mother had said because she, too, was a God-fearing woman.
She replied to her mother that, of course, she would do as her mother had bidden.
She went and sent a letter to the merchant’s son, who was then in prison, telling him that she considered herself his and that he was her betrothed.
She enclosed a rudimentary map and on it she sketched all the locations where her mother and his father had hidden together, with an accurate likeness of each of the seven witnesses.
She warned him fervently to protect that scroll with the utmost care. She signed her name below.
Thereupon, the young man, having averted his planned execution with another prisoner taken in his stead, was released and he fled.
He kept going until he reached the sea, where he 104 boarded a ship and set sail.
A gale rose and drove the ship to a desert shore.
Because of the force of the gale the ship was destroyed, but the crew survived and made it to dry land.
It was a wasteland, so they went off to find something to eat, each one on his own.
As it was a wasteland, ships were not accustomed to stopping there.
As a result, they did not expect any ships to come and return them home.
So each, taking to his own way, dispersed into the wasteland to find something to eat.
The young man likewise went off into the wasteland.
He walked on and on until he was very far from the coast and wished to return but found he could not.
The more he wanted to return, the more remote became his possibility of returning.
So he kept walking deeper into the wasteland.
He fashioned a bow that he used to protect himself from the wild beasts of the wasteland.
He walked on and found something to eat.
He kept walking and walking until he had left the wasteland and arrived at a place that had been abandoned.
There he found water and fruit trees all around.
He ate of the fruit and drank of the water.
He decided that he would stay there in order to survive, for it was simply too difficult to return to the coast. And who knew whether he might find another settlement were he to leave this one?
So he decided to stay there and live out his life.
After all, it was good there—he had fruit to eat and water to drink.
And periodically he would go out and shoot his bow to catch a hare or a hart for meat.
And other times he would go and catch fish because there were very good fish in that water.
It pleased him that he would live out his years there. 105
Now the sentence on the merchant’s son had been carried out and he was rid of him, the emperor could finally arrange a match for his daughter.
They began proposing matches to her with various kings.
He built a seraglio for her, as was their custom, where she dwelt.
She brought along ladies, the daughters of noblemen, to be with her there.
She would play instruments, as was their custom, and when matches were proposed she would always answer that she did not wish to speak of such things unless the would-be groom came himself.
She was very skilled in the art of poetry recitation.
She very craftily constructed a balcony to which the would-be groom might climb up to stand before her and recite a poem, a love poem such as a lover recites to his beloved.
Kings came to propose, and they would ascend the balcony, each one reciting his own love poem.
To some, she had her ladies deliver her reply, sending a poem and her fond regards.
To others who were more pleasing she replied herself, lifting her voice in a poem and answering with words of love.
To those who pleased her even more, she appeared in person, showing her face, and answering with an especially affectionate poem.
And to each of them she always concluded, But the waters are not gone over you and one night his song shall be with me!
No one understood what she meant by this.
Moreover, when she showed her face the suitor would swoon on account of her great beauty.
Some fainted away and others went mad with lovesickness because of her profoundly extraordinary beauty.
Nevertheless, despite all the madness and fainting, kings continued to come to propose to her, and she answered them all in the same way. 106