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http://www.bartleby.com/16/203.html English 193 Handouts 9 and 9a

Nights 3–9

The Story of the Husband and the Parrot

THERE was a certain merchant, of an exceedingly jealous disposition, having a wife endowed with perfect beauty, who had prevented him from leaving his home; but an event happened which obliged him to make a journey; and when he found his doing so to be indispensable, he went to the market in which birds were sold, and bought a parrot, which he placed in his house to act as a spy, that, on his return, she might inform him of what passed during his absence; for this parrot was cunning and intelligent, and remembered whatever she heard. So, when he had made his journey, and accomplished his business, he returned, and caused the parrot to be brought to him, and asked her respecting the conduct of his wife. She answered, Thy wife has a lover, who visited her every night during thy absence,—and when the man heard this, he fell into a violent rage, and went to his wife, and gave her a severe beating.

The woman imagined that one of the female slaves had informed him of what had passed between her and her paramour during his absence: she therefore called them together, and made them swear; and they all swore that they had not told their master anything of the matter; but confessed that they had heard the parrot relate to him what had passed. Having thus established, on the testimony of the slaves, the fact of the parrot’s having informed her husband of her intrigue, she ordered one of these slaves to grind with a handmill under the cage, another to sprinkle water from above, and a third to move a mirror from side to side, during the next night on which her husband was absent; and on the following morning, when the man returned from an entertainment at which he had been present, and inquired again of the parrot what had passed that night during his absence, the bird answered, O my master, I could neither see nor hear anything, on account of the excessive darkness, and thunder, and lightning, and rain. Now this happened during summer: so he said to her, What strange words are these? It is now summer, when nothing of what thou hast described ever happens.—The parrot, however, swore by Allah the Great that what she had said was true; and that it had so happened: upon which the man, not understanding the case, nor knowing the plot, became violently enraged, and took out the bird from the cage, and threw her down upon the ground with such violence that he killed her.

But after some days, one of his female slaves informed him of the truth; yet he would not believe it, until he saw his wife’s paramour going out from his house; when he drew his sword, and slew the traitor by a blow on the back of his neck: so also did he to his treacherous wife; and thus both of them went, laden with the sin which they had

committed, to the fire; and the merchant discovered that the parrot had informed him truly of what she had seen; and he mourned grievously for her loss.

When the Wezir heard these words of King Yunan, he said, O King of great dignity, what hath this crafty sage—this man from whom nought but mischief proceedeth—done unto me, that I should be his enemy, and speak evil of him, and plot with thee to destroy him? I have informed thee respecting him in compassion for thee, and in fear of his despoiling thee of thy happiness; and if my words be not true, destroy me, as the Wezir of Es-Sindibad was destroyed.—The King asked, How was that? And the Wezir thus answered:….

Edward William Lane (September 17, 1801, Hereford, England—August 10, 1876, Worthing, Sussex) was a noted scholar of the Arabic language and Arabic literature. He was the son of an English clergyman, a prebendary, of Hereford, England. He was born in Hereford and sent to university at Cambridge, with the plan that he should enter his father's profession. However, he abandoned the university and moved to London, where he trained to ->

become an engraver. He was diagnosed with a mild case of tuberculosis, then known as consumption, and advised to remove to a warm dry climate. He sailed to Egypt in 1825.While in Egypt, he devoted himself to the study of Arabic, Arabic literature, and Islam, observed Egyptian manners and customs, and adopted the dress and habits of an Egyptian man of learning.He returned to England in 1828, with the draft of a travel book embellished with his own drawings. After many rejections, he finally found a publisher -- however, rather than putting the book through the press in its original form, he insisted on revisiting Egypt in 1833 to check or expand his earlier observations.The resulting book, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, was published in 1836 and became a surprise best-seller. From 1838 through 1840, he issued the several volumes of his translation of The Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). This too was a great popular success.He was married in 1840, to a woman of Greek descent. After publishing a book of translations of excerpts from the Qur'an, he decided to assemble a dictionary and thesaurus of Arabic. He returned to Egypt in 1842 to work on his book. He stayed in Egypt until 1849, when he made his final return to England. Until his death in 1876, he worked unceasingly on his gigantic dictionary -- which was, unfortunately, unfinished at the time of his death. It was completed by his nephew, S. L. Poole and published in 1893 as the Arabic English Lexicon . ()0()))()() ‘I am of Ireland ’ by Yeats http://www.bibliomania.com/0/-/frameset.html

‘I am of Ireland,

And the Holy Land of Ireland,

And time runs on,’ cried she.

‘Come out of charity,

Come dance with me in Ireland.’

One man, one man alone

In that outlandish gear,

One solitary man

Of all that rambled there

Had turned his stately head.

‘That is a long way off,

And time runs on,’ he said,

‘And the night grows rough.’

‘I am of Ireland,

And the Holy Land of Ireland,

And time runs on,’ cried she.

‘Come out of charity

And dance with me in Ireland.’

‘The fiddlers are all thumbs,

The drums and the kettledrums

And the trumpets all are burst,

And the trombone,’ cried he,

‘The trumpet and trombone,’

And cocked a malicious eye,

‘But time runs on, runs on.’

‘I am of Ireland,…