(beginning on 566)
[The vizier warned,] “If you don’t relent, I shall do to you what the merchant did to his wife.” [Shahrazad] said, “Such tales don’t deter me from my request. You ignore an alternate ending of the tale: how the merchant’s wife saved her husband from his curse.”
[The Tale of the Merchant’s Wife and the Curse]
When the merchant’s wife saw how desperate her husband was to keep his secret, she suspected there was more to the situation than there seemed. She sought advice from a nearby shepherd’s daughter, known for her fondness of soothsaying and magic, adept in the art of oaths and spells. The merchant’s wife described her husband’s ear perking to the garbled voices of animals, saying, “He laughs at air and explains nothing.” The shepherd’s daughter listened and responded, “There are those who understand the scrambled minds of animals, but such an ability does not come without danger: I fear for your husband’s life if he harbors this secret alone any longer.”
The merchant’s wife returned to her husband and told him she knew of his burden. He hid his face in fear, cheeks soaked with tears. She asked, “Why do you weep, husband?” He said, “Now that I have revealed my ability, I will surely die.” His wife laughed and reassured him, “No, my husband, you have revealed nothing. I have watched you and understood you—your secret is in my hands now.” His wife stood beside him and shouldered the invisible burden he struggled mute beneath, and the merchant rejoiced, relief shining through his tears.
Future misunderstandings surrounding her husband’s strange ability met quick resolution by the merchant’s wife, as she was unbound by his same constraints, and the couple grew more open and close to each other with every shared step.
“Do you see now why I must go to the king and help him understand the world? The king is blinded by self-pity and paranoia because he has never had someone to sincerely share his burden, as the merchant’s wife did for his husband. I can do this, Father. Trust me.”
“But daughter have you not heard of the tale of the ox and the donkey?” replied the vizier. “What tale of the ox and the donkey?” she asked. Her father spoke thus: “There was once an ox that was very curious. He always wanted to know the backside of every story, joke, riddle, message, object and everything else in the world around him. His curiosity, though, made him blind. One day, annoyed by seeing the backside of the donkey, he asked him, ‘Why do you always stand there and do nothing?’ the donkey, turning around, replied, ‘What do you mean?’ The ox, a bit provocative, asked, ‘Have you ever wondered what was beyond the fence?’ and the donkey replied, ‘Oh no, we are forbidden from going there, only humans go there’. But the ox, a curious one, wanted to see if the donkey could help him get over the fence. The ox, a bit clever, asked the donkey, “Yes, the humans do go there often, but did you know what I saw one time when they came back from that forbidden place?”, the donkey, now provoked, asked, “What?” and the ox, lying with a sharp tongue, “They came back with your favorite food, apples!”. “Apples!” replied the donkey ecstatically, “I sure do love apples!” The ox, now seizing the opportunity, concocted a plan with the donkey to get over the fence and in return get him apples. The donkey told him that the humans sometimes leave the fence gate open at night to refill the fodder. He could distract the humans by acting tired and sick so the ox could have the opportunity to leave through the fence gate undetected. The next night, their plan worked and the ox escaped through the fence gate seamlessly. But little did the ox know what his curiosity will bring him. The ox, now free but hungry, was desperately looking for food. Then the ox, much to his surprise, saw a basket of apples in the middle of nowhere. He happily ran over to it and started eating. While he was eating, something very sharp hit his backside. Then another something very sharp punctured his stomach. They were spears being thrown at him by hunters- little did he know, his curiosity brought him to a hunting ground. You, my daughter, will likewise perish because of your miscalculation. Desist, sit quietly, and don’t expose yourself to peril. I advise you out of compassion for you.
But tired and exhausted from his daughter’s relentlessness, he went to the king and told him about his daughter…
I loved reading these together! Two very different tales–each backed by a very different view of the world, of bravery and curiosity–but both in line, in different ways, with the original. Well-done, Maya and Syed.