J.C Mardrus (editor) - The Book of the Thousand and one Nights. Volume 1 (Thousand Nights & One Night)

IT is relatedbut Allh is all wise and all knowing, all powerful and all beneficentthat 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 Ssn, 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 Shahryr. The smaller brother was called King Shahzamn 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 Wazr to depart and return with him:and the Wazr answered: I hear and I obey. The Wazr set out and, arriving in all security by the grace of Allh, entered the presence of the brother, wished him peace, and told him the purpose of his journey.

King Shahzamn 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 Wazr 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 brothers 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 brothers city.

His brother rejoiced at his approach, went out to meet him and, greeting him, wished him peace; also he adorned the city for him, and began to speak with him jovially. But King Shahzamn remembered the affair of his wife, and a cloud of grief veiled him; his cheeks became sallow and his body frail. King Shahryr, seeing him in this pass and thinking it was due to his exile from lands and kingdom, questioned him no further on the subject and let him be. But, on a later day, he said: My brother, I know not! and yet I see your body grow frail and your cheeks sallow. Shahzam