Part 34 (2/2)

Scarce had the prince Nor had Zayn al Asnam

made an end of his speech ended his words ere they when they heard a noise heard the roar of thunderings of thunder rending the that would rend a mountains and shaking mount and shake the the earth, and fear gat earth, whereat the Queen hold upon the queen, the Mother was seized with mother of Zein ul Asnam, mighty fear and affright. Yea and sore trembling; But presently appeared but, after a little, the the King of the Jinn, King of the Jinn who said to her, ”O my appeared and said to her, lady, fear not! Tis I, the ”O Lady, fear not, it is protector of thy son, whom I who am thy son's I fondly affect for the protector and I love him affection borne to me by with an exceeding love his sire. I also am he who for the love his father manifested myself to him bore me.

Nay, I am he in his sleep, and my object who appeared to him in therein was to make trial his sleep and in this I of his valiance and to learn purposed to try his an he could do violence to fort.i.tude, whether or not his pa.s.sions for the sake he might avail to subdue of his promise, or whether himself for loyalty's the beauty of this lady sake.” would so tempt and allure

him that he could not keep his promise to me with due regard.”

Here, again, Payne is concise and literal, Burton diffuse and gratuitously paraphrastic as appears above and everywhere, and the other remarks which we made when dealing with the Nights proper also apply, except, of course, that in this instance Burton had not Payne's version to refer to, with the consequence that in these two tales (”Alaeddin”

and ”Zayn Al Asnam”) there are over five hundred places in which the two translators differ as to the rendering, although they worked from the same MS. copy, that of M. Houdas, lent by him to Burton and afterwards to Payne. Arabists tell us that in practically every instance Payne is right, Burton wrong. The truth is that, while in colloquial Arabic Burton was perfect, in literary Arabic he was far to seek, [568] whereas Mr. Payne had studied the subject carefully and deeply for years.

But Burton's weakness here is not surprising. A Frenchman might speak excellent English, and yet find some difficulty in translating into French a play of Shakespeare or an essay of Macaulay. Burton made the mistake of studying too many things. He attempted too much.

But in the Supplemental Nights, as in the Nights proper, his great feature is the annotating. Again we have a work within a work, and the value of these notes is recognised on all sides. Yet they are even less necessary for elucidating the text than those in the Nights proper. Take for example the tremendous note in Vol. i. on the word ”eunuchs.” As everybody knows what a eunuch is, the text is perfectly clear. Yet what a ma.s.s of curious knowledge he presents to us! If it be urged that the bulk of Burton's notes, both to the Nights proper and the Supplemental Nights, are out of place in a work of this kind--all we can say is ”There they are.” We must remember, too, that he had absolutely no other means of publis.h.i.+ng them.

Chapter x.x.xIV. ”The Scented Garden”

Bibliography:

77. The Scented Garden. ”My new Version,” translated 1888-1890.

158. Nafzawi.

As we learn from a letter to Mr. Payne, 8th November 1888, Burton began his ”new version” of The Scented Garden, or as it is sometimes called, The Perfumed Garden, in real earnest early in that month, and Lady Burton tells us that it ”occupied him seriously only six actual months,”

[569] that is, the last six months of his life.

The Scented Garden, or to give its full t.i.tle, ”The Scented Garden for the Soul's Recreation” was the work of a learned Arab Shaykh and physician named Nafzawi, who was born at Nafzawa, a white, [570]

palm-encinctured town which gleamed by the sh.o.r.e of the Sebkha--that is, salt marsh--Shot al Jarid; and spent most of his life in Tunis. The date of his birth is unrecorded, but The Scented Garden seems to have been written in 1431. [571] Nafzawi, like Vatsyayana, from whose book he sometimes borrows, is credited with having been an intensely religious man, but his book abounds in erotic tales seasoned to such an extent as would have put to the blush even the not very sensitive ”Tincker of Turvey.” [572] It abounds in medical learning, [573] is avowedly an aphrodisiac, and was intended, if one may borrow an expression from Juvenal, ”to revive the fire in nuptial cinders.” [574] Moslems read it, just as they took ambergrised coffee, and for the same reason. Nafzawi, indeed, is the very ant.i.thesis of the English Sir Thomas Browne, with his well-known pa.s.sage in the Religio Medici, [575] commencing ”I could be content that we might procreate like trees.” Holding that no natural action of a man is more degrading than another, Nafzawi could never think of amatory pleasures without e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.n.g. ”Glory be to G.o.d,” or some such phrase. But ”Moslems,” says Burton, ”who do their best to countermine the ascetic idea inherent in Christianity, [576] are not ashamed of the sensual appet.i.te, but rather the reverse.” [577] Nafzawi, indeed, praises Allah for amorous pleasures just as other writers have exhausted the vocabulary in grat.i.tude for a loaded fruit tree or an iridescent sunset. His mind runs on the houris promised to the faithful after death, and he says that these pleasures are ”part of the delights of paradise awarded by Allah as a foretaste of what is waiting for us, namely delights a thousand times superior, and above which only the sight of the Benevolent is to be placed.” We who antic.i.p.ate walls of jasper and streets of gold ought not, perhaps, to be too severe on the Tunisian. It must also be added that Nafzawi had a pretty gift of humour. [578]

159. Origin of The Scented Garden.

The origin of the book was as follows: A small work, The Torch of the World, [579] dealing with ”The Mysteries of Generation,” and written by Nafzawi, had come into the hands of the Vizier of the Sultan of Tunis. Thereupon the Vizier sent for the author and received him ”most honourably.” Seeing Nafzawi blush, he said, ”You need not be ashamed; everything you have said is true; no one need be shocked at your words.

Moreover, you are not the first who has treated of this matter; and I swear by Allah that it is necessary to know this book. It is only the shameless boor and the enemy of all science who will not read it, or who will make fun of it. But there are sundry things which you will have to treat about yet.” And he mentioned other subjects, chiefly of a medical character.

”Oh, my master,” replied Nafzawi, ”all you have said here is not difficult to do, if it is the pleasure of Allah on high.”

”I forthwith,” comments Nafzawi, ”went to work with the composition of this book, imploring the a.s.sistance of Allah (May He pour His blessing on the prophet) [580] and may happiness and pity be with him.”

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