Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp Part 16

[Footnote 476: Tebakhin. Burton, "kitcheners."]

[Footnote 477: Keszr.]

[Footnote 478: Wa, but quaere au ("or")?]

[Footnote 479: Kushk.]

[Footnote 480: The description of the famous upper hall with the four-and-twenty windows is one of the most contused and incoherent parts of the Nights and well-nigh defies the efforts of the translator to define the exact nature of the building described by the various and contradictory pa.s.sages which refer to it. The following is a literal rendering of the above pa.s.sage: "An upper chamber (keszr) and (or?) a kiosk (kushk, a word explained by a modern Syrian dictionary as meaning '[a building] like a balcony projecting from the level of the rest of the house,' but by others as an isolated building or pavilion erected on the top of a house, i.e. a keszr, in its cla.s.sical meaning of 'upper chamber,' in which sense Lane indeed gives it as synonymous with the Turkish koushk, variant kushk,) with four-and-twenty estrades (liwan, a raised recess, generally a square-shaped room, large or small, open on the side facing the main saloon), all of it of emeralds and rubies and other jewels, and one estrade its kiosk was not finished." Later on, when the Sultan visits the enchanted palace for the first time, Alaeddin "brought him to the high kiosk and he looked at the belvedere (teyyareh, a square or round erection on the top of a house, either open at the sides or pierced with windows, =our architectural term 'lantern') and its cas.e.m.e.nts (shebabik, pl. of shubbak, a window formed of grating or lattice-work) and their lattices (she"ri for she"rir, pl. of sheriyyeh, a lattice), all wroughten of emeralds and rubies and other than it of precious jewels." The Sultan "goes round in the kiosk" and seeing "the cas.e.m.e.nt (shubbak), which Alaeddin had purposely left defective, without completion," said to the Vizier, "Knowest thou the reason (or cause) of the lack of completion of this cas.e.m.e.nt and its lattices?" (shearihi, or quaere, "[this] lattice," the copyist having probably omitted by mistake the diacritical points over the final ha). Then he asked Alaeddin, "What is the cause that the lattice of yonder kiosk (kushk) is not complete?"

The defective part is soon after referred to, no less than four times, as "the lattice of the kiosk" (sheriyyetu 'l kushk), thus showing that, in the writer's mind, kushk, liwan and shubbak were synonymous terms for the common Arab projecting square-sided window, made of latticework, and I have therefore rendered the three words, when they occur in this sense, by our English "oriel," to whose modern meaning (a window that juts out, so as to form a small apartment), they exactly correspond.

Again, in the episode of the Maugrabin's brother, the princess shows the latter (disguised as Fatimeh) "the belvedere (teyyarrh) and the kiosk (kushk) of jewels, the which [was] with (i.e. had) the four-and-twenty portals" (mejouz, apparently a Syrian variant of mejaz, lit. a place of pa.s.sage, but by extension a porch, a gallery, an opening, here (and here only) used by synecdoche for the oriel itself), and the famous roe's egg is proposed to be suspended from "the dome (cubbeh) of the upper chamber" (el keszr el faucaniyy), thus showing that the latter was crowned with a dome or cupola. It is difficult to extricate the author's exact meaning from the above tangle of confused references; but, as far as can be gathered. in the face of the carelessness with which the text treats kushk as synonymous now with keszr or teyyareh and now with liwan or shubbak, it would seem that what is intended to be described is a lofty hall (or sorer), erected on the roof of the palace, whether round or square we cannot tell, but crowned with a dome or cupola and having four-and-twenty deep projecting windows or oriels, the lattice or trellis-work of which latter was formed (instead of the usual wood) of emeralds, rubies and other jewels, strung, we may suppose, upon rods of gold or other metal I have, at the risk of wearying my reader, treated this point at some length, as well because it is an important one as to show the almost insuperable difficulties that beset the. conscientious translator at well-nigh every page of such works as the "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night."]

[Footnote 481: Night DLXV.]

[Footnote 482: The text has imar (an inhabited country), an evident mistake for emair (buildings).]

[Footnote 483: Night DLXVI.]

[Footnote 484: Atsm sekhahu. Burton. "his dignity was enhanced."]

[Footnote 485: Or "imitate" (yetemathelou bihi). Burton, "which are such as are served to the kings."]

[Footnote 486: Night DLXVII.]

[Footnote 487: Wectu 'l asr, i.e. midway between noon and nightfall.]

[Footnote 488: Lit. "was broken" (inkeseret).]

[Footnote 489: Burton, "with the jerid," but I find no mention of this in the text. The word used (le'ba, lit. "he played") applies to all kinds of martial exercises; it may also mean simply, "caracoling."]

[Footnote 490: See ante, p. 167, note 1. {see FN#456}]

[Footnote 491: Or "turns" (adwar).]

[Footnote 492: El hemmam a sultaniyy el meshhour. Burton, "the royal Hammam (known as the Sult ni)."]

[Footnote 493: Muhliyat. Burton, "sugared drinks."]

[Footnote 494: Night DLXVIII.]

[Footnote 495: Keszriha. Burton, "her bower in the upper story."]

[Footnote 496: Lit. "changed the robes (khila) upon her." For the ceremony of displaying (or unveiling) the bride, see my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. I. pp. 192 et seq., and "Tales from the Arabic," Vol. III. pp. 189 et seq.]

[Footnote 497: Meshghoul.]

[Footnote 498: Keszr.]

[Footnote 499: Szeraya, properly serayeh.]

[Footnote 500: i.e. Alexander the Great; see my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. V. p. 6, note.]

[Footnote 501: Night DLXIX.]

[Footnote 502: Henahu.]

[Footnote 503: Fetour, the slight meal eaten immediately on rising, answering to the French "premier dejeuner," not the "morning-meal"

(gheda), eaten towards noon and answering to the French "dejeuner... la fourchette."]

[Footnote 504: Gheda.]

[Footnote 505: Tekerrum (inf. of V of kerem), lit. "being liberal to any one." here an idiomatic form of a.s.sent expressing condescension on the part of a superior. Such at least is the explanation of the late Prof.

Dozy; but I should myself incline to read tukremu (second person sing. aorist pa.s.sive of IV), i.e. "Thou art accorded [that which thou seekest]."]

[Footnote 506: Indhehela.]

[Footnote 507: Or "upper hall, gallery." Lit. "kiosk." See ante, p.l75, note 4. {see FN#480}]

[Footnote 508: Teyyareh. See ante, l.c. The etymology of this word is probably [caah] teyyareh, "a flying [saloon]."]

[Footnote 509: Shebabik, pl. of shubbak; see ante, l.c.]

[Footnote 510: Sheari, see ante, l.c.]

[Footnote 511: Shubbak.]

[Footnote 512: Night DLXX.]

[Footnote 513: Lit. "kiosk" (kushk); see ante, p. 175, note 4.{see FN#480}]

[Footnote 514: Ma lehiket el muallimin (objective for nom. muallimoun, as usual in this text) an.]

[Footnote 515: Yebca lika dhikra. Burton, "So shall thy memory endure."]

[Footnote 516: Lit. "kiosk."]

[Footnote 517: ? (teba'kh).]

[Footnote 518: Or "melodious."]

[Footnote 519: El kelb el hhezin.]

[Footnote 520: i.e. "might not avail unto."]

[Footnote 521: Muhlivat, as before; see ante. p. 183, note 2. {see FN#493}]

[Footnote 522: Szeraya.]

[Footnote 523: Night DLXXI.]