burton--1001-nights--sample

Now the book was poisoned; and before long the venom penetrated
his system, and he fell into strong convulsions and he cried out, “The
poison hath done its work!” Whereupon the sage Duban’s head began
to improvise: —
There be rulers who have ruled with a foul tyrannic sway * But they
soon became as though they had never, never been:
Just, they had won justice: they oppressed and were opprest * By
Fortune, who requited them with ban and bane and teen:
So they faded like the morn, and the tongue of things repeats * “Take
this for that, nor vent upon Fortune’s ways thy spleen.”
No sooner had the head ceased speaking than the King rolled over
dead.
Now I would have thee know, O Ifrit, that if King Yunan had spared
the sage Duban, Allah would have spared him; but he refused so to do
and decreed to do him dead, wherefore Allah slew him; and thou too,
O Ifrit, if thou hadst spared me, Allah would have spared thee. —
And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say: then quoth Dunyazad, “O my sister, how pleasant is thy
tale and how tasteful; how sweet, and how grateful!” She replied, “And
where is this compared with what I could tell thee this coming night,
if I live and the King spare me?” Said the King in himself, “By Allah,
I will not slay her until I hear the rest of her story, for truly it is
wondrous.” They rested that night in mutual embrace until dawn: then
the King went forth to his Darbar; the Wazirs and troops came in and
the audience-hall was crowded; so the King gave orders and judged
and appointed and deposed and bade and forbade the rest of that day,
when the court broke up, and King Shahryar entered his palace.
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