Story of the Three Calenders - 13

Entering one of the doors which was standing¹ open I found myself in a vast hall where forty young ladies, magnificently dressed, and of perfect beauty, were reclining. As soon as they saw me they rose and uttered words of welcome, and even forced me to take possession of a seat that was higher than their own, though my proper place was at their feet. Not content with this, one brought me splendid garments, while another filled a basin with scented² water and poured it over my hands, and the rest busied themselves with preparing refreshments³. After I had eaten and drunk of the most delicate food and rarest wines, the ladies crowded round me and begged me to tell them all my adventures. 

 

By the time I had finished night had fallen, and the ladies lighted up the castle with such a prodigious⁴（惊人的） quantity of tapers⁵ that even day could hardly have been brighter. We then sat down to a supper of dried fruits and sweetmeats, after which some sang and others danced. I was so well amused that I did not notice how the time was passing, but at length one of the ladies approached and informed me it was midnight, and that, as I must be tired, she would conduct me to the room that had been prepared for me. Then, bidding me good-night, I was left to sleep. 

 

I spent the next thirty-nine days in much the same way as the first, but at the close of that time the ladies appeared (as was their custom) in my room one morning to inquire how I had slept, and instead of looking cheerful and smiling they were in floods of tears. "Prince," said they, "we must leave you, and never was it so hard to part from any of our friends. Most likely we shall never see you again, but if you have sufficient self-command perhaps we may yet look forward to a meeting." 

 

"Ladies," I replied, "what is the meaning of these strange words-- I pray you to tell me?" 

 

"Know then," answered one of them, "that we are all princesses-- each a king's daughter. We live in this castle together, in the way that you have seen, but at the end of every year secret duties call us away for the space of forty days. The time has now come; but before we depart, we will leave you our keys, so that you may not lack entertainment during our absence. But one thing we would ask of you. The Golden Door, alone, forbear to open, as you value your own peace, and the happiness of your life. That door once unlocked, we must bid you farewell for ever." 

 

Weeping, I assured them of my prudence⁶（审慎）, and after embracing me tenderly, they went their ways. 

 

Every day I opened two or three fresh doors, each of which contained behind it so many curious things that I had no chance of feeling dull, much as I regretted the absence of the ladies. Sometimes it was an orchard⁷, whose fruit far exceeded in bigness any that grew in my father's garden. Sometimes it was a court planted with roses, jessamine, dafeodils, hyacinths and anemones⁸, and a thousand other flowers of which I did not know the names. Or again, it would be an aviary⁹, fitted with all kinds of singing birds, or a treasury¹⁰ heaped up with precious stones; but whatever I might see, all was perfect of its own sort. 

 

Thirty-nine days passed away more rapidly than I could have conceived possible, and the following morning the princesses were to return to the castle. But alas¹¹! I had explored every corner, save only the room that was shut in by the Golden Door, and I had no longer anything to amuse myself with. I stood before the forbidden place for some time, gazing at its beauty; then a happy inspiration struck me, that because I unlocked the door it was not necessary that I should enter the chamber¹². It would be enough for me to stand outside and view whatever hidden wonders might be therein. 

 

Thus arguing against my own conscience, I turned the key, when a smell rushed out that, pleasant though it was, overcame me completely, and I fell fainting across the threshold. Instead of being warned by this accident, directly I came to myself I went for a few moments into the air to shake of the effects of the perfume, and then entered boldly. I found myself in a large, vaulted¹³ room, lighted by tapers, scented with aloes and ambergris, standing in golden candle-sticks, whilst gold and silver lamps hung from the ceiling. 

 

Though objects of rare workmanship lay heaped around me, I paid them scant¹⁴ attention, so much was I struck by a great black horse which stood in one corner, the handsomest and best-shaped animal I had ever seen. His saddle and bridle¹⁵ were of massive gold, curiously¹⁶ wrought¹⁷; one side of his trough was filled with clean barley¹⁸ and sesame（芝麻）, and the other with rose water. I led the animal into the open air, and then jumped on his back, shaking the reins¹⁹ as I did so, but as he never stirred, I touched him lightly with a switch I had picked up in his stable. No sooner did he feel the stroke, than he spread his wings (which I had not perceived before), and flew up with me straight into the sky. When he had reached a prodigious height, he next darted²⁰ back to earth, and alighted on the terrace belonging to a castle, shaking me violently out of the saddle（鞍） as he did so, and giving me such a blow with his tail, that he knocked out my right eye. 

 

Half-stunned as I was with all that had happened to me, I rose to my feet, thinking as I did so of what had befallen the ten young men, and watching the horse which was soaring into the clouds. I left the terrace and wandered on till I came to a hall, which I knew to have been the one from which the roc had taken me, by the ten blue sofas against the wall. 

 

The ten young men were not present when I first entered, but came in soon after, accompanied by the old man. They greeted me kindly²¹, and bewailed my misfortune, though, indeed, they had expected nothing less. "All that has happened to you," they said, "we also have undergone, and we should be enjoying the same happiness still, had we not opened the Golden Door while the princesses were absent. You have been no wiser than we, and have suffered the same punishment. We would gladly receive you among us, to perform such penance²²（苦修，忏悔） as we do, but we have already told you that this is impossible. Depart, therefore, from hence and go to the Court of Bagdad, where you shall meet with him that can decide your destiny." They told me the way I was to travel, and I left them. 

 

On the road I caused my beard and eyebrows²³ to be shaved, and put on a Calender's habit. I have had a long journey, but arrived this evening in the city, where I met my brother Calenders at the gate, being strangers like myself. We wondered much at one another, to see we were all blind of the same eye, but we had no leisure to discourse²⁴ at length of our common calamities²⁵. We had only so much time as to come hither to implore²⁶ those favours which you have been generously pleased to grant us. 

 

He finished, and it was Zobeida's turn to speak: "Go wherever you please," she said, addressing all three. "I pardon you all, but you must depart immediately out of this house."

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