burton--1001-nights--sample

See, O Ifrit, the mercy of the Envied to the Envier, who had hated
him from the beginning and had borne him such bitter malice and
never met him without causing him trouble; and had driven him from
house and home, and then had journeyed for the sole purpose of
taking his life by throwing him into the well. Yet he did not requite his
injurious dealing, but forgave him and was bountiful to him.
Then I wept before him, O my lady, with sore weeping, never was
there sorer, and I recited: —
Pardon my fault, for ’tis the wise man’s wont * All faults to pardon
and revenge forgo:
In sooth all manner faults in me contain * Then deign of goodness
mercy-grace to show:
Whoso imploreth pardon from on High * Should hold his hand from
sinners here below.
Said the Ifrit, “Lengthen not thy words! As to my slaying thee fear it
not, and as to my pardoning thee hope it not; but from my bewitching
thee there is no escape.” Then he tore me from the ground which
closed under my feet and flew with me into the firmament till I saw
the earth as a large white cloud or a saucer in the midst of the waters.
Presently he set me down on a mountain, and taking a little dust, over
which he muttered some magical words, sprinkled me therewith, saying,
“Quit that shape and take thou the shape of an ape!” And on the
instant I became an ape, a tail-less baboon, the son of a century. 51
Now when he had left me and I saw myself in this ugly and hateful
shape, I wept for myself, but resigned my soul to the tyranny of Time
and Circumstance, well weeting that Fortune is fair and constant to no
51
A hundred years old.
177