Tenth Tale Of a Wealthy Merchant and a Poor Man #3
The young man had settled in his oasis and made a dwelling to live in.
He, too, knew how to play musical instruments and was versed in the art of poetry.
He chose wood suitable for instruments and fashioned them from it.
From the sinews of beasts he made strings.
And he would play music. He would take the letter his betrothed had sent him in prison and he would sing and play and remember everything that had happened to him: from when his father was a wealthy merchant to how he had now come to be there.
He took the letter and made a mark on one of the trees.
And in that tree he hollowed out a hiding place and hid the letter within. And there he stayed for some time.
Once there arose an immense gale that knocked down all the trees that stood there.
He could not identify the tree where he had hidden the letter.
When the trees had been standing, he had a mark to recognize, but now that they had fallen, that tree was jumbled together with the numerous other trees.
So he could no longer identify his tree.
Nor was it possible to split open all the trees to look for the letter because there were so many.
So he wept bitterly and grieved much. He understood that if he stayed there he would surely go mad from his anguish.
He decided he had to move on, and let whatever might happen happen.
He put some meat and fruit in a sack and departed whither he might go, making signs on the place he had left behind.
He travelled on until he came to a settlement and asked, What country is this?
They answered, and next he asked, Have you heard of the emperor? 107
They replied, Yes.
He asked, Have you heard of his daughter, the great beauty?
They answered, Yes, but no one can win her hand.
Since he could not go to her he came to a decision.
He went to the ruler of the kingdom in which he found himself and unburdened his heart, telling him that the emperor’s daughter was his betrothed and how she had promised to take no other groom.
Because he could not enter the emperor’s realm he entrusted the king with all the signs he had, namely the seven watery places, so the king might go there and betroth her, in return for which he would be given money.
The king recognized that he spoke the truth because such a tale was impossible to fabricate.
The plan pleased the king, but he decided to have her for himself instead.
But keeping the young man around was no good.
Should he kill him? No, he did not wish to do such a thing; why should he be killed after the favour he had done him?
So the king decided to banish him to a distance of two hundred miles.
The young man was vexed at having been banished for such a favour as he had done for the king.
So he went to another king and unburdened himself in the same way, revealing to him the seven signs to which he added one more sign.
He enjoined the king, urging him to leave at once with all due haste so he might overtake the other king and arrive there before him.
And even if he did not get there first, he had one sign more than the first king.
The second king decided as the first king had and likewise banished the young man another two hundred miles away. 108
Once again, the young man was vexed, so he went to a third king and did as before, giving him further signs, excellent signs indeed.
The first king rose and straight away betook himself to the emperor’s daughter’s seraglio, where he composed a poem, artfully weaving the seven places into it.
But owing to the artistry of the poem, the places were not given in the right order because the prosody demanded otherwise.
The king ascended the balcony for declamation and recited his poem.
When she heard the seven places she was overcome with astonishment.
She was overjoyed: this was certainly her groom!
But she was puzzled as to why he had not recited the places in the right order.
Nevertheless, she thought, perhaps it was for prosodic effect.
She felt in her heart that it was he, so she wrote to him that she would betroth him.
There was much rejoicing and excitement because the great beauty had found a match, and preparations were begun for the wedding.
In the meantime, the second king arrived in a hurry and was told that she had already been betrothed.
He ignored them and said, Nevertheless… Because he had something to tell her that would surely convince her.
The second king came and recited his poem.
He put all the places in the right order and to them he added one more sign.
She asked the first king how he came to know these things.
If he were to tell the truth, it would not benefit him, so he replied that he did not know how.
She was overcome with astonishment and stood there bewildered because both kings had recounted all the places.
How might a person come to know these signs?
Nevertheless, she was overjoyed that 109 the second king would now be her groom, for she had heard him telling the signs in the right order and adding a further sign.
Perhaps the first king had only hit upon those places for prosodic effect.
But there she remained, wavering in indecision.
The young man, having been banished by the second king, and being again very vexed, had gone to the third king and recounted the whole story to him, telling him further excellent signs.
He had unburdened his heart to the king, revealing he had a map on which all seven places were sketched.
So the third king should sketch all the places on a piece of paper and bring it to the emperor’s daughter.
Then the third king, too, banished the young man a further two hundred miles, and hurried to her seraglio.
When he was told that there were already two kings there, he replied, Nevertheless…
Because he had something to tell her that would surely convince her.
No one had any idea why she preferred these to the suitors who had come before.
The third king arrived and recited his poem with the excellent signs, far better than the others’.
He showed her the paper with the sketch of all the places.
She was dumbfounded with fear and surprise but was unable to do anything because she had thought the first king was her intended and then also the second king.
So she said she would believe no one until her own scroll was brought to her.
The young man reflected on how far he kept being banished.
So he decided he would simply go there himself—perhaps he might prevail.
So he journeyed until he arrived at the seraglio and said he had something to tell her that would surely convince her.
He came and recited his poem and included even more excellent 110 signs.
He reminded her that they had studied together in the same class, and revealed yet more signs.
He told her everything: how he had sent the three kings and how he had hidden her scroll in a tree and everything that had happened to him.
She turned a blind eye to this. Surely the kings would have their own reasons for why they did not have her scroll, and surely it would be impossible to recognize the merchant’s son after such a long time?
She would not heed any signs until she was brought the scroll written in her own hand.
After all, she had thought the first king was her groom, and then also the second king and the third.
The young man determined that he could not tarry there long lest the emperor catch wind of his presence and kill him, so he decided to return to his place in the wasteland and live out his years there.
He travelled on and on to get to the wasteland and eventually arrived.
Many years passed, and the young man remained steadfast in his intention to stay there in the wasteland to live out his years.
Given his appraisal of man’s whole life upon the earth, he arrived at the conclusion that it was fitting to live out his years in that wasteland.
So there he stayed, eating fruit and all the rest.
Upon the sea there was a pirate. When this pirate heard tell of an exceptionally beautiful woman in the world, he set his heart on abducting her.
Even though he had no physical desire for her, since he had been castrated long ago, he still wished to abduct her in order to sell her to a king.
She would fetch a hefty sum of money. The pirate began plotting her abduction.
Pirates are impulsive, so he decided to risk it.
If he succeeded, 111 he succeeded. And if he did not, so be it. He was impulsive the way pirates are.
He went and bought an extraordinarily large quantity of goods.
He crafted golden birds so artfully that people believed they were real, as lifelike as actual birds.
Then he made golden ears of corn. And the birds stood on the corn.
It was an extraordinary thing for the birds to stand on the corn and the corn not to break, since the birds were quite large.
He then cleverly engineered the birds so that they seemed to play, this one trilling, that one chirruping, and that one warbling.
All this was achieved by clever tricks—there were men stationed in a room on the ship behind the birds, pulling strings to make it look as if the birds themselves were playing and singing and everything else.