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tawfek's review
3.0
She lords it o'er our hearts in grass green gown.
With buttons loose and locks long flowing down.
Quoth I, 'what is thy name?' Quoth she, I'm she,
Who burns the lover-heart live coals upon:
I made my plaint to her of loving lowe
Laughed she, 'to stone though moanest useless moan!'
Quoth I, 'An be of hardest stone thy heart,
Allah drew sweetest spring from hardest stone.'
Volume 2 done, and guess what, my 4 volume Arabic version didn't even finish a single volume of it yet! Mainly Because its packed full, hard cover, Big book!
Warning for Modern readers of different religions other than Islam, There is a lot of religious ugliness here, many insults that i can't repeat, or rather don't want to, it's directed at Christians but i don't think anyone of any religion would find that acceptable today, It was so ugly for me, i hated it so much, that i wished it would have been better if Richard Burton didn't translate them, It's really weird too, the writer rarely got a Christian name right? it felt like they either had no direct contact with their enemies in the wars that have been going for centuries, or maybe they choose the ugly names just to be sarcastic about the names as well, this is the reason this volume plummets to 3 stars for me.
So Good news for Arabic readers, There is only one missing scene, and i will not be a tease this time and leave it for the end of the Volume, It's a scene at the beginning of the tale of King Omar Bin El-Nu'man, Between Sharrkan and the Christian Princess.
Spoiler
The Arabic Version i Have is made by a religious sheikh like a lot of literature of old Arabia, The Guy thought its wrong for a Muslim prince to lose in wrestling against a Christian princess, which is so idiotic, because later on she even beat him on full on battle, with the sword and the spear on the back of horses!So This Volume of the Nights consisted of 2 Big stories and 1 Humongous Story, 1 of which was the ending of a story started last volume, and guess what only 4 little stories within them, 1 of which we don't even get to finish this volume, So yeah forget about reasonable pacing in this version lol.
The Humongous story is one of the least imaginative stories in the Nights as well, sadly, It's really a fantasy story where Muslims bring to reality their dream of Conquering Constantinople, which makes us know for sure, that these stories are before that time.
And Guess what we didn't even finish it too!
By what thine eyelids show of kohl and coquetry!
By what thy shape displays of lissome symmetry!
By what thy liplets store of honey dew and wine!
By what thy mind adorns of gracious kindly gree!
To me thy sight dream-visioned, O my hope! Exceeds
The happiest escape from horriblest injury.
(kohl is the arabic name for eyeliner)
There was a scene, about how the prince and his entourage came to a plain, full of wild animals, they surrounded it with wires, and killed all the animals inside.
The description made it feel like they didn't even know what these animals were.
It made me sad honestly, how many animals we might have drove to extinction.
People in These old ages, didn't give a fuck about animals going extinct and used them for hunting sport and for fun, it's really sad, how many animals we drove to extinction because of Hunting.
When i drew up her shift from the roof of her coynte,
I found it as strait as my mind and my money:
So i drove it half-way, and she sighed a loud sigh
Quoth I, 'why this sigh?' 'for the rest of it, honey!'
So Last volume we talked about most important topics, this volume i can only think of one!
The Vulgarity of The Arabian Nights, The true original Version of the nights is vulgar, Muslims back then were not as uptight as they are now, Now everything is not allowed or as we say "Haram"
So the Nights are actually using the most vulgar of terms to refer to women and men's private parts, it even uses vulgar terms to refer to the act of fucking (i could have said making love, but i don't think fucking is always making love honestly)
Richard Burton tried to stay true to that, now i am not sure how vulgar is the word Coynte in the 1850s, But i doubt many people will even know what the word mean without googling!
Malcom spoke about this at his forward for his translation and said he is getting rid of the vulgarity but come on dude, the original work has vulgarities you remove them, you are not staying true to the work, but i guess he never gave a fuck about that, wanted to be all prim and proper instead of giving freedom to the art.
And Honestly, The Vulgarity of the Nights, i thought about it all, Why? I think the terms were used as mischievous jokes, it's like they were there to shock you, not to make you horny or anything, which makes me not want to shelf the Nights so far as erotica, They are meant to shock the listener and make them laugh, because it's been said already by the narrator, you can't stop it anymore.
On the glancing racer outracing glance
He speeds, as though he would collar doom:
His steed's black coat is of darkest jet,
And likest night in her nightliest gloom:
Whose neigh sounds glad to the hearer's ears
Like thunders rolling in thund'rous boom:
If he race the wind he will lead the way,
And the lightning flash will behind him loom.
The hills and trees and rocks reworded their shout for fear of the almighty.
The Islamic Fantasies come to life, and this i don't really say as an insult, actually nothing i said in this review was meant as an insult to any party, But In Old Islamic literature, actually even new Islamic literature by certain fanatics, Always tries to make the religious Fantasies of Quran a reality, Which is one glaring problem in the religion that no one seems to bother to fix, and those who try get called heathens, But A big example for this was the explanation for the verses of Quran where the Moon split in two, This accident never happened, Most of the old explanations of Quran by Great Muslim Sheikhs refuse that the explanation meant something that happened, some said its a metaphor and some said its something that is yet to come, One of The honest old explanators said, I can't accept this in anyway, because its a cosmic change, if the moon is split in arabia that means it has been split all over the world, and we never got news of that from anywhere else, except the lies that were told later to make it a reality, But Most Muslims today think it actually happened!
Why? Because there was explanators of the Quran that took everything literally and spun tales to bring the fantasies and imaginations of Quran to reality, The problem is for the youth following these explanations when they are shocked by all the discrepancies, it will just make them look for even more of them and eventually not be convinced of the entire structure, But it's a problem for them, not for the growing Atheist masses of the world.
There be three who are known only in three several cases, the merciful man is unknown save in time of wrath, the brave only in battle, and thy friend in time of need.
Old Arabic wisdom sayings is present in all our poetry, as it is present in the nights in just normal day to day speak between the characters.
Long i lamented that we fell apart,
While tears repentant railed from these eyne;
And sware, if time unite us twain once more,
'Severance' shall never sound from tongue of mine:
Joy hath so overwhelmed me that excess
Of pleasure from mine eyes draws gouts of brine:
Tears O mine eyes, have now become your wont
Ye weep for pleasure and you weep for pine!
megelsewhere's review against another edition
3.0
Not exactly tales for kids. At all. Interesting, though, if only for the variations and the contents not included in the kid's version. This second volume has fables, also.
tiggum's review against another edition
1.0
Let me see if I can recap for you the Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman and His Sons Sharrkan and Zau Al-Makan, which takes up most of this book.
King Omar has a son, Sharrkan, who is the greatest warrior of all time. At the beginning of the story, one of his concubines, Sophia, gives birth to twins, Zau Al-Makan and his sister Nuzhat al-Zamán. But never mind them for the moment. Sharrkan goes out to fight the Christians, who are being dicks for some reason. On the way he meets this woman and spends several days with her, before his army eventually comes to find out what happened to him. She turns out to be a Christian princess, and she explains that the war is actually happening because one Christian king accidentally sent another Christian king's daughter to Omar as a slave. Turns out she's Sophia and this whole issue could have been avoided if Sophia had ever once spoken up and said "Hey guys, I'm actually the daughter of your friend and ally."
Sharrkan and the Christian princess decide to get married, and so they go back to Omar's palace and just kind of forget about that war they were going to. When they get there, Omar rapes the princess and she flees and is murdered. The Christians find out about this and they're understandably upset. So they put aside their differences and blame everything on Omar. The mother of one of the Christian kings is a witch (but she never does anything requiring actual magic, so that's not really important) and she comes up with a plan to infiltrate the Muslims. But forget about that for the moment. Also Sharrkan gets his own city to rule, but that's not important.
Meanwhile the twins have grown up and they decide to go on a pilgrimage. While they're off they get in trouble - Zau gets sick and Nuzhat gets kidnapped and enslaved. Zau is taken care of by a kindly stranger and sets out to find his sister. Meanwhile Nuzhat gets sold to Sharrkan, who has no idea who she is, and he marries and impregnates her before discovering that she's his half-sister. Again, this would have been avoided if she'd just said who she was when asked. They're both horrified and decide to cover the whole thing up, annulling the marriage and pretending her child is the child of another guy. But that's not important right now.
The witch's ridiculously convoluted plan finally comes to fruition and she poisons Omar. Zau and Sharrkan divide up the kingdom between them and set out to fight the Christians in revenge for their father. The Muslims kick seven kinds of shit out of the Christians, until they meet up with the witch, who's disguised herself as a Muslim holy man. She kind of tricks them into some sort of bad moves, but they still keep kicking Christian arse all the way to Constantinople.
The four kings agree to fight each other one-on-one. One of the Christian kings injures Sharrkan, and Zau kills the other. The dead king was the son of the witch, so she finally makes her move for real and poisons Sharrkan, so he's dead. The Muslims are now camped outside Constantinople, and the Christians are barricaded inside. So Zau decides that what he needs right now is to hear his advisor tell some stories. Half way through one of these stories, the book ends.
And if you thought this review went on too long, try reading the fucking book.
King Omar has a son, Sharrkan, who is the greatest warrior of all time. At the beginning of the story, one of his concubines, Sophia, gives birth to twins, Zau Al-Makan and his sister Nuzhat al-Zamán. But never mind them for the moment. Sharrkan goes out to fight the Christians, who are being dicks for some reason. On the way he meets this woman and spends several days with her, before his army eventually comes to find out what happened to him. She turns out to be a Christian princess, and she explains that the war is actually happening because one Christian king accidentally sent another Christian king's daughter to Omar as a slave. Turns out she's Sophia and this whole issue could have been avoided if Sophia had ever once spoken up and said "Hey guys, I'm actually the daughter of your friend and ally."
Sharrkan and the Christian princess decide to get married, and so they go back to Omar's palace and just kind of forget about that war they were going to. When they get there, Omar rapes the princess and she flees and is murdered. The Christians find out about this and they're understandably upset. So they put aside their differences and blame everything on Omar. The mother of one of the Christian kings is a witch (but she never does anything requiring actual magic, so that's not really important) and she comes up with a plan to infiltrate the Muslims. But forget about that for the moment. Also Sharrkan gets his own city to rule, but that's not important.
Meanwhile the twins have grown up and they decide to go on a pilgrimage. While they're off they get in trouble - Zau gets sick and Nuzhat gets kidnapped and enslaved. Zau is taken care of by a kindly stranger and sets out to find his sister. Meanwhile Nuzhat gets sold to Sharrkan, who has no idea who she is, and he marries and impregnates her before discovering that she's his half-sister. Again, this would have been avoided if she'd just said who she was when asked. They're both horrified and decide to cover the whole thing up, annulling the marriage and pretending her child is the child of another guy. But that's not important right now.
The witch's ridiculously convoluted plan finally comes to fruition and she poisons Omar. Zau and Sharrkan divide up the kingdom between them and set out to fight the Christians in revenge for their father. The Muslims kick seven kinds of shit out of the Christians, until they meet up with the witch, who's disguised herself as a Muslim holy man. She kind of tricks them into some sort of bad moves, but they still keep kicking Christian arse all the way to Constantinople.
The four kings agree to fight each other one-on-one. One of the Christian kings injures Sharrkan, and Zau kills the other. The dead king was the son of the witch, so she finally makes her move for real and poisons Sharrkan, so he's dead. The Muslims are now camped outside Constantinople, and the Christians are barricaded inside. So Zau decides that what he needs right now is to hear his advisor tell some stories. Half way through one of these stories, the book ends.
And if you thought this review went on too long, try reading the fucking book.
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