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The Thousand Nights - I


Auteur :
Éditeur : Routledge Date & Lieu : 2004, London
Préface : Pages : 644
Traduction : ISBN : 0-415-04539-8
Langue : AnglaisFormat : 130x205 mm
Code FIKP : Liv. Ang.Thème : Littérature

Présentation
Table des Matières Introduction Identité PDF
The Thousand Nights - I

Versions

The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night - I

Powys Mathers

Routledge

For this revised edition of The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night all names of persons and places and all Arabic words retained in the text have, where necessary, been compared with and corrected by Macnaghten’s Calcutta Edition of the original (1839–42). As the object of the present translation was in the first place, and still is, to parallel Dr. Mardrus’ ideal of a simple and un annotated version of the complete work for the entertainment of the casual reader, the system of transliteration adopted here, though it gives a consistency lacking in my first edition and in the French of Dr. Mardrus, has been simplified almost beyond the approval of scholars. I have taken this course because I have been assured by experts on the subject that the Anglo-Saxon eye, when reading for pleasure, invariably shies at and side-steps any foreign word decorated with diacritical points or such sound-signs as ‘(for ‘ain) and’ (for aliph). The long vowels are marked in order that the reader may have some idea of the rhythm intended, but all other signs are omitted lest they should spoil his enjoyment of the text. Such a simplification allows, of course, of misunderstanding; it does not, for instance, show that Abu Ishak, Harun’s musician, should be pronounced Is-hak; but such occasional losses seem, when we bear in mind the purpose of the translation, more than counterbalanced by the gain in ease of reading and to the eye.



NOTE

For this revised edition of The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night all names of persons and places and all Arabic words retained in the text have, where necessary, been compared with and corrected by Macnaghten’s Calcutta Edition of the original (1839–42). As the object of the present translation was in the first place, and still is, to parallel Dr. Mardrus’ ideal of a simple and un annotated version of the complete work for the entertainment of the casual reader, the system of transliteration adopted here, though it gives a consistency lacking in my first edition and in the French of Dr. Mardrus, has been simplified almost beyond the approval of scholars. I have taken this course because I have been assured by experts on the subject that the Anglo-Saxon eye, when reading for pleasure, invariably shies at and side-steps any foreign word decorated with diacritical points or such sound-signs as ‘(for ‘ain) and’ (for aliph). The long vowels are marked in order that the reader may have some idea of the rhythm intended, but all other signs are omitted lest they should spoil his enjoyment of the text. Such a simplification allows, of course, of misunderstanding; it does not, for instance, show that Abu Ishak, Harun’s musician, should be pronounced Is-hak; but such occasional losses seem, when we bear in mind the purpose of the translation, more than counterbalanced by the gain in ease of reading and to the eye.

P.M.



This revised edition of
The Book of the Thousand Nights
and One Night
is affectionately dedicated to
Jack Isaacs
who liked the work in its first
and more imperfect form
P.M.

As Allah Wills!
In the Name of Allah
The Merciful, The Compassionate!

Praise be to Allah, master of the Universe! And prayer and peace upon the Prince of Messengers, Muhammad our lord paramount! And upon all his people prayer and peace together for ever until the judgment day!

And afterwards! May the legends of the men of old be lessons to the people of our time, so that a man may see those things which befell others beside himself: then he will honour and consider carefully the words and adventures of past peoples, and will reprove himself.

Also glory be to him who preserved the tales of the first dwellers to be a guide for the purposes of the last! Now it is from among these lessons that the stories called The Thousand Nights and One Night are taken; together with all that there is in them of wonder and instruction.

The Tale of King Shahryār and of his Brother, King Shahzamān

It is related-but Allāh is all wise and all knowing, all powerful and all beneficent-that there was, in the tide and show of ancient time and the passage of the age and of the moment, a king among the kings of Sāsān, in the isles of India and China. He was master of armies and auxiliaries, of slaves and of a great following; and he had two sons, one tall and the other small. Both were heroic horsemen; but the taller was the greater in this exercise and reigned over lands and governed with justice among men, so that the peoples of the land and of the kingdom loved him. His name was King Shahryār. The smaller brother was called King Shahzamān and ruled over Samarkand al-Ajam.

Both lived in their countries and were just rulers of the people for a space of twenty years; by the end of which time each was at the height of his splendour and his growth.

This was the way with them until the tall king was seized by a violent longing to see his brother. Then he commanded his Wazīr to depart and return with him: and the Wazīr answered: ‘I hear and I obey. The Wazīr set out and, arriving in all security by the grace of Allāh, entered the presence of the brother, wished him peace, and told him the purpose of his journey.

King Shahzamān answered: ‘I hear and I obey.’ Then he made preparations for his departure and for the going out of his tents, his camels, and mules; his slaves and fighting-men. Lastly he raised his own Wazīr to the governorship, and departed to seek the lands of his brother.

But, in the middle of the night, he recalled a thing which he had left forgotten at the palace. Returning and entering, he found his wife stretched on her bed and being embraced by a black slave. At this sight, the world darkened before his face and he said within his soul: if such a thing has come to pass when I have hardly left the city, what would the conduct of this wanton be if I were absent for long at my brother’s house?’ So he drew his sword and with one stroke killed them upon the carpets of the bed. Then he returned and, ordering his camp to move forward, journeyed through the night till he came to his brother’s city.

.....

 




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