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Arabian Nights Double Bill §2 · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

0:06
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Moony's Mythic Podcast.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the landscape of the soul that this is.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this space which is yours to rest into.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: This space,
0:23
SPEAKER_00: this podcast is sponsored by magic,
0:27
SPEAKER_00: sponsored by winter,
0:29
SPEAKER_00: sponsored by dark night,
0:31
SPEAKER_00: sponsored by myth,
0:33
SPEAKER_00: sponsored by story,
0:34
SPEAKER_00: sponsored by you guys.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: really for listening and listening into that in that deep way that I know some of
0:45
SPEAKER_00: you listen into that bedtime get to sleep way that I know some of you listen in
0:51
SPEAKER_00: into that um whilst I'm doing something else way you know however you come to this
0:56
SPEAKER_00: however you listen I'm
0:58
SPEAKER_00: really grateful because I can feel you here when I tell I can feel you I can see
1:06
SPEAKER_00: your faces I'm just like totally my heart fans open to connect with you
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And in the last podcast, I was reading to you an Arabian Nights story, the second part.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: And I got off the pod and I just thought, I can't do it to them.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've made a promise to look after you this winter.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like not going to the end of the story didn't feel quite right.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: But this program that I record on, I can't pause it or anything.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: And I was beginning to lose concentration.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: So here I am to read to you the last part.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: And let me just lift the book up.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: It's a big old heavy thing.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember,
1:57
SPEAKER_00: the two brothers,
1:59
SPEAKER_00: they're looking for the talking bird and they've been told to roll by the old wise
2:05
SPEAKER_00: man to roll a ball of red granite and that there are these voices that are going to...
2:12
SPEAKER_00: call to them and to not look round and to not hear her heads but they do they allow
2:18
SPEAKER_00: the sound to turn their heads and then when they turn their heads they turn to
2:22
SPEAKER_00: black stone and now the sister's going but she's plugged up her ears so she can't
2:28
SPEAKER_00: hear them and she gets past and she's just at the talking bird but I was thinking
2:35
SPEAKER_00: about life and about how
2:41
SPEAKER_00: things don't impact me like they used to when criticism or negativity from other
2:50
SPEAKER_00: people and I think wow all along I could have just not listened to them all along
2:58
SPEAKER_00: so let's gather around us this winter people who's
3:03
SPEAKER_00: opinions we trust and let's just yeah just shake off right now any of those words
3:10
SPEAKER_00: or names or criticisms or looks or anything let's just just shake them off because
3:18
SPEAKER_00: we don't want them in our in our winter dreaming
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Something really juicy is ripening in us for this winter and for all time.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: So let's give it the space that it deserves.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: So let us see where they are.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: There,
3:40
SPEAKER_00: in a flat space,
3:41
SPEAKER_00: she saw a gold cage standing on a gold pedestal,
3:45
SPEAKER_00: holding the talking bird bright within it.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: She ran forward and placed her hand upon the cage, crying, I have you, bird, you shall never escape me.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: At the same time,
3:56
SPEAKER_00: she pulled the wisps of cotton from her ears and threw them far from her,
4:01
SPEAKER_00: for already the voices of the invisible were still and a silence slept upon the mountain.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: At this point Shaharazad saw the approach of morning and discreetly fell silent.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: But when the 778th night had come,
4:20
SPEAKER_00: she said,
4:21
SPEAKER_00: the voice of the talking bird rose in the breast of that silent singing clear.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: For Harazad, Rose's smile, Farazad, Rose's shape, why should I, why should I seek escape?
4:37
SPEAKER_00: For I know, roses smile, better far, Farizad, than you know, Farizad, who you are.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: To the grave, Farizad, I am slave.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Roses smile, Farizad, to the grave.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: Thus sang the talking bird, O Lutz.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: Farizad forgot her weariness and said to the miracle,
4:58
SPEAKER_00: O Bulbul Alhazar,
5:00
SPEAKER_00: O marvel of the air,
5:02
SPEAKER_00: if you are my slave,
5:03
SPEAKER_00: prove it to me.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And Bulbul sang this answer.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Farizad, you to say, Farizad, you to say, and for me, Farizad, to obey.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Then Farizad asked where she might find the singing tree and Bulbul bade her turn
5:27
SPEAKER_00: to the opposite slope of the mountain.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: There she saw a tree so great that it might have shaded a whole army and wondered
5:37
SPEAKER_00: exceedingly how she should be able to uproot it and carry it away.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Seeing her perplexity,
5:45
SPEAKER_00: Bulbul sang again that it was enough to break off the least branch of that tree and
5:50
SPEAKER_00: to plant it in her garden.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: So Farizad walked towards the tree and listened to the singing of its leaves.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: Can you see that tree?
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Vast, vast tree.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: And even when there's no wind, the trees, the leaves rustle.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And when they rustle, they sing.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: When she walked towards the tree,
6:42
SPEAKER_00: she understood that she was in the presence of the second marvel,
6:47
SPEAKER_00: for neither light winds in Persian gardens nor Indian lutes nor Syrian harps had
6:54
SPEAKER_00: ever made music to be compared with the concerted singing of the thousand invisible
7:00
SPEAKER_00: mouths which were the leaves of that melodious tree.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: When Farizad had sufficiently recovered from her ecstasy to pluck a small branch,
7:12
SPEAKER_00: she returned to Bulbul and asked him where she might find the gold water.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: The talking bird bade her turn towards the west and look behind a blue rock when there she would see.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: So she turned her steps to the west and beheld a mass of tender turquoise and a
7:33
SPEAKER_00: slim stream of liquid gold gushed from its azure wall upon the far side.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: But though the jet was gold, it was as cool and translucent as a water of topaz.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: With the splendid water,
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Farizad filled a crystal urn which stood in a niche of the blue rock and returned
7:54
SPEAKER_00: to Bulbul,
7:55
SPEAKER_00: carrying both her prizes.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: Thus, Farazad of the Rose's Smile gained possession of the three incomparable things.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, most beautiful, I have yet one more prayer to make, she said.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: The goal of my setting forth has not yet been attained.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: The bird invited her to say on,
8:21
SPEAKER_00: and she murmured in a trembling voice,
8:24
SPEAKER_00: My brothers,
8:24
SPEAKER_00: oh Poo-Poo,
8:26
SPEAKER_00: my brothers.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: For a moment Bulbul was terrified, for he had been used so long to serve those of the invisible.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: But soon he called to mind that the princess had conquered and sang in answer.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: With the fountain, fountain, fountain, fountain water, fountain tinkle.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: In the urn,
8:49
SPEAKER_00: urn of crystal,
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Farazad,
8:51
SPEAKER_00: Farazad,
8:52
SPEAKER_00: rise,
8:53
SPEAKER_00: oh rise,
8:54
SPEAKER_00: oh rise and sprinkle all the black stones of the mountain with the fountain,
8:59
SPEAKER_00: with the fountain,
9:00
SPEAKER_00: Farazad,
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Farazad.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Farazad took the crystal urn in one hand and,
9:07
SPEAKER_00: holding the gold cage and the singing branch in the other,
9:10
SPEAKER_00: began to retrace her steps down the mountain.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: As she passed any black basalt rock,
9:17
SPEAKER_00: she would sprinkle it with water and it would take on life and change into a man.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: Soon her brothers were restored to her by this means and ran to embrace her while
9:29
SPEAKER_00: all the other noble youths wakened from their stony sleep,
9:34
SPEAKER_00: hastened to kiss her hand and declare themselves her slaves.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: The whole troop reached the bottom of the mountain in safety,
9:43
SPEAKER_00: and when Farizad had restored their horses with the gold water,
9:47
SPEAKER_00: rode off in the direction of the old man's tree.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: But the old man was not in the meadowland, and his tree had disappeared.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Farizad questioned Bulbul concerning this, and he answered in a voice which had become suddenly serious.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Why do you wish to see the old man, Farizad?
10:10
SPEAKER_00: He gave a daughter of men the teaching of a cotton wisp,
10:15
SPEAKER_00: so that she overcame the inopportune voices of evil,
10:19
SPEAKER_00: and now,
10:20
SPEAKER_00: as a master retires before his work,
10:23
SPEAKER_00: he has gone to his own place.'
10:25
SPEAKER_00: His wisdom remains with you and the evils which afflict the human race may not take
10:30
SPEAKER_00: hold of you because you have learnt not to lend the attention of your soul to
10:37
SPEAKER_00: outside happenings.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Let's have that again.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: You have learnt not to lend the attention of your soul to outside happenings.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Shall we keep it safe, keep our soul safe?
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Shall we come back, come back, come back to ourselves this winter?
10:56
SPEAKER_00: Shall we come back, keep our souls safe this winter?
11:05
SPEAKER_00: You have learnt serenity, which is the mother of happiness.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: So spake the talking bird in the place where the old man's tree had stood,
11:16
SPEAKER_00: and all who heard marvelled at the depth and beauty of his language.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: At first they all kept together upon the road, forming an escort about Farizad.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: But soon the lords and princes branched off, one after other, to go to their homes.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: And on the evening of the twentieth day,
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Farid,
11:38
SPEAKER_00: Farouz and Farizad arrived alone and without accident at their palace.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: When they had dismounted,
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Farizad hung the gold cage under the jasmine arbour,
11:51
SPEAKER_00: and as soon as Bulbul sounded the first note of his voice,
12:04
SPEAKER_00: All the birds of the garden flocked together to regard him and sang his praise in chorus.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: For the nightingales,
12:12
SPEAKER_00: chaffinches,
12:13
SPEAKER_00: larks,
12:14
SPEAKER_00: warblers,
12:15
SPEAKER_00: goldfinches and doves,
12:16
SPEAKER_00: together with all the infinite races of the birds,
12:20
SPEAKER_00: recognised his supremacy.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: In voices high and low,
12:24
SPEAKER_00: they sang responses among the leaves to his solitary couplets and acclaimed each
12:30
SPEAKER_00: skilful trill of his in the language of their kind.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And Farizad went to the fountain basin of Alabaster,
12:40
SPEAKER_00: in whose depths she had been used to behold the silver and gold splendour of her hair,
12:46
SPEAKER_00: and let fall into it one drop of water from the crystal herb.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: The gold bead swelled and jetted up a berth of golden sprays,
12:57
SPEAKER_00: rising and falling and never overflowing,
13:01
SPEAKER_00: and filling the sun-flecked air with the cool of a sea cave.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: And with her own hands,
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Farazad planted the singing branch so that it took root and grew in a few moments
13:14
SPEAKER_00: to as great and fair a tree as the one from which it came.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: It sang with all its leaves.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: and neither light winds in persian gardens nor indian lutes nor syrian harps had
13:29
SPEAKER_00: ever made such music to hear the thousand invisible mouths which were its leaves
13:35
SPEAKER_00: the waters of the garden ceased to run murmuring the birds fell silent and the
13:40
SPEAKER_00: wandering breeze among the roses hushed the silken sighing of its dress
13:50
SPEAKER_00: The days of monotonous happiness began again.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Farizad resumed her walks among the alleys,
13:58
SPEAKER_00: staying for long hours to talk with the talking bird,
14:02
SPEAKER_00: to listen to the singing tree and to delight her eyes with the gold water while
14:07
SPEAKER_00: Farid and Firouz returned to their hunting and riding in the neighbouring woods.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: At this point, Shahrazad saw the approach of mourning and discreetly fell silent.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: But when the seven hundred and seventy-ninth night had come,
14:27
SPEAKER_00: she said,
14:30
SPEAKER_00: One day,
14:32
SPEAKER_00: as the two brothers rode out hunting,
14:34
SPEAKER_00: they saw the Sultan approaching by the same narrow woodpath in which they went,
14:40
SPEAKER_00: so they hastened to dismount and prostrate themselves.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: The king,
14:45
SPEAKER_00: who was surprised to see two richly dressed and unknown cavaliers so near his city,
14:52
SPEAKER_00: bade them rise that he might behold their faces.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: They rose and stood before him with an air of nobility, which admirably suited their respectful mien.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: The king was struck by their beauty and looked them up and down for a while.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Then, as his heart was drawn towards them, he asked them where they dwelt.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: O king of time, they answered.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: We are the sons of your old slave, the chief gardener, who is now dead.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: We dwell not far from here, in the house which you gave him.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: The Sultan rejoiced to make the acquaintance of his faithful servant's children,
15:33
SPEAKER_00: but he was astonished that they had not presented themselves at the palace.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: And so,
15:39
SPEAKER_00: O King of Time,
15:40
SPEAKER_00: they answered,
15:41
SPEAKER_00: pray forgive us our absence from before your generous face,
15:45
SPEAKER_00: but we have a young sister who our father's latest trust to us.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: "'who was our father's latest trust to us,
15:53
SPEAKER_00: "'and we watch over her with so much love "'that it has never occurred to us to
15:58
SPEAKER_00: leave her.'
15:58
SPEAKER_00: "'Touched by this answer,' the Sultan exclaimed,
16:03
SPEAKER_00: "'I never thought that I had in my kingdom two youths "'so charmingly accomplished
16:09
SPEAKER_00: and so free from ambition.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: "'I will, if I may, visit your dwelling "'and rejoice my sight further.'
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Immediately, Firuz led him forward, and Fareed rode ahead to inform his sister of the king's coming.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Farizad heard the news with a certain dismay, as she was unused to receiving guests.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: In her perplexity, she consulted her friend Bulbul, the talking bird.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: "'Oh, Bulbul, the king's about to honour our house with a visit, and we've got to entertain him.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Teach us how to behave, that he may go away content, dear mistress.'
16:46
SPEAKER_00: It'll be useless for you to get the cook to prepare any dishes for the king.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: A single one will serve him.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: A dish of cucumber stuffed with pearls.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Farizad thought that the bird's tongue had betrayed him, so she cried with laughter.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: "'What are you thinking of?
17:03
SPEAKER_00: A cucumber stuffed with pearls.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: There never was such a dish.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: If the king honours our cloth, he will want to eat, not swallow pearls.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: You meant to say, cucumber stuffed with rice.'
17:14
SPEAKER_00: But the talking bird answered angrily, "'Not at all, not at all.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Stuff with pearls, stuff with pearls, not with rice, not with rice.'
17:22
SPEAKER_00: So Farizad,
17:23
SPEAKER_00: who had every confidence in her miraculous pet,
17:25
SPEAKER_00: bade the old cook prepare a dish of cucumbers stuffed with pearls,
17:30
SPEAKER_00: of which there was naturally great store in the house.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: She cries pearls.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Soon Firouz led the Sultan to the garden, where Fareed greeted him and helped him to dismount.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Farizad of the Rose's smile,
17:45
SPEAKER_00: veiled for the first time in her life on Bulbul's advice,
17:49
SPEAKER_00: came to kiss his hand.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: My heart's kind of sinking here, you know.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, she's going to fall in love with a king.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Boring.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Is he her dad?
17:57
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember now.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, carry on.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: The king wept for her sweet grace and the jasmine purity which exhaled from her
18:11
SPEAKER_00: reminded him that he was growing old without a daughter.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Good.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: No, it doesn't look like there's going to be any incest going on.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: As he blessed her, he said, he who leaves posterity does not die.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: O father of these fair children, may Allah grant you a place upon his right hand in paradise.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: Then glancing again at the bowing Farizad,
18:32
SPEAKER_00: he continued,
18:33
SPEAKER_00: but now I beg you,
18:34
SPEAKER_00: O scented stem,
18:36
SPEAKER_00: O daughter of my servant,
18:38
SPEAKER_00: lead me to some delightful thicket where we may be shaded from the heat.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: So the trembling Farizad led him towards the depths of the garden, followed by her two brothers.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Kushrin Shah was the spray of gold water.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: He paused for a moment before it and cried, marvellous gold rain, cooling the eyes.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: As he would have examined it more closely,
19:10
SPEAKER_00: he heard the music of the singing tree and lent a ravished ear to it for many
19:16
SPEAKER_00: silent minutes.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Music of dreams, he cried.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: But as he would have walked nearer to the tree,
19:23
SPEAKER_00: its singing ceased,
19:25
SPEAKER_00: and a great silence fell upon the garden.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: The voice of the talking bird rose small and sweet and clear from the breast of that silence.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, King.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, King.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Kushra Shah.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Then, as the last note ceased, all the birds of the garden answered in their own tongue.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Kushra Shah felt his heart made tender by astonishment,
20:05
SPEAKER_00: and he cried,
20:06
SPEAKER_00: O house of peace,
20:08
SPEAKER_00: would I might cast aside my power and live with the children of my old slave for ever.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: The brothers and sisters pointed out the beauties of the singing tree and the
20:19
SPEAKER_00: talking bird to him,
20:21
SPEAKER_00: and Farazad said,
20:23
SPEAKER_00: The getting of these marvels is a tale which I shall tell our lord the king when he
20:28
SPEAKER_00: is rested.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: The Sultan reposed under the jasmine arbour and there the cucumbers stuffed with
20:36
SPEAKER_00: pearls were served before him in a gold dish.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: The king was extremely fond of stuffed cucumbers and rejoiced when he saw them.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: But when he found that they were filled with pearls,
20:49
SPEAKER_00: he exclaimed,
20:51
SPEAKER_00: surely this is a novel way of cooking cucumbers.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Farizad was on the point of dropping the dish and fleeing in confusion.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: when the talking bird called the Sultan gravely by name and said to him,
21:03
SPEAKER_00: O Kushra Shah,
21:04
SPEAKER_00: O Kushra Shah,
21:06
SPEAKER_00: since when has the Queen of Persia given birth to animals?
21:10
SPEAKER_00: If you could believe that impossibility, O King of Time, this impossibility should mean nothing to you.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Dear Master,
21:17
SPEAKER_00: do not remember the words which were spoken in a humble dwelling one evening twenty
21:22
SPEAKER_00: years ago.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: If you have forgotten, Farazad's slave will repeat them to you.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Imitating the sweet speech of a young girl, the bird went on.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: My wish is to marry our master, the Sultan.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: I would give him fair posterity.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Our sons should be worthy of their father,
21:43
SPEAKER_00: and our daughter would be a smile of the sky,
21:47
SPEAKER_00: and I should love her.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Her hair would be silver and gold.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Her tears, if she wept, would be falling pearls.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Her laughter,
21:56
SPEAKER_00: if she laughed,
21:57
SPEAKER_00: would be gold coins,
21:59
SPEAKER_00: and if she smiled,
22:01
SPEAKER_00: her smiles would be buds of rose glowing from her lips.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: The Sultan hid his face in his hands and sobbed,
22:14
SPEAKER_00: for his old grief was even greater in the recalling than in the happening.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: Far thoughts flowed from their place in the depths of his soul into his heart and tore it savagely.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: But Bulbul raised his voice again and this time gaily saying, Unveil before your father, Farizad.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Farizad lifted her veils and her hair fell down with them so that the Sultan saw it
22:46
SPEAKER_00: and stretched out his arms with a happy cry.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Behold your daughter, O king, sang Bulbul.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Surely her hair is silver and gold,
22:57
SPEAKER_00: and there are pearls of joy upon her lids,
23:00
SPEAKER_00: and a rose,
23:01
SPEAKER_00: a young rose,
23:02
SPEAKER_00: coming to blossom at her mouth.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: The king then looked upon the two brothers and recognised himself in them.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Behold your sons, O king, sang out the voice of Bulbul.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: While Kushra Shah stayed still for very happiness with his arms about his children,
23:23
SPEAKER_00: the talking bird told him the whole story of their birth from beginning to end.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: But nothing would be gained by repeating it in this place,
23:32
SPEAKER_00: unless of course you haven't listened to the first Arabian Nights pod,
23:36
SPEAKER_00: in which case I'd suggest you just go back and have a listen to it at the end of
23:41
SPEAKER_00: this story so you know the context of all this.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: As the tale went on, the Sultan and his children mingled their tears and kisses together.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Glory be to Allah, the great, the unfathomable, who blesses his people with reunion.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: My sweet ones,
24:01
SPEAKER_00: let us ride in all haste to tell your mother,
24:05
SPEAKER_00: but we shall not try to describe the poor woman's joy when she saw,
24:10
SPEAKER_00: after her lonely years,
24:12
SPEAKER_00: the love and splendour of her children.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Let us rather give thanks for that infinite justice which struck the two jealous
24:21
SPEAKER_00: sisters dead from rage upon that happy day and gave years and long delights to
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Kushra Shah and to his queen and to the princess and to Farazad until they were
24:32
SPEAKER_00: visited by the separator of friends,
24:34
SPEAKER_00: the destroyer.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Glory be to him who, seated among eternity, knows no change.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: This is the marvellous tale of Farazad of the Rose's Smile.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: When Shaharazad made an end of this story,
24:54
SPEAKER_00: little Dunyazad cried,
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Dear sister,
24:57
SPEAKER_00: your words are sweet and delightful,
24:59
SPEAKER_00: fresh and savoury.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: I found the story charming.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: So did I, agreed King Shariah.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: And there was a whisper.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: I think I see a tear in the king's left eye and a second tear in his right eye.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: But at this point, Shaharazad saw the approach of mourning and discreetly fell silent.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Mmm.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Wow, it's a treasure of a story.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: It's got so many layers and it's very beautiful and very descriptive.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: It's more...
25:49
SPEAKER_00: It's more intricate than the kind of style that I tell stories in.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: But I felt welled with emotion at the end there.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: So I can really see how the descriptiveness...
26:07
SPEAKER_00: can,
26:09
SPEAKER_00: the beauty,
26:10
SPEAKER_00: there was so much beauty created within the story and how that's kind of ripened my
26:17
SPEAKER_00: heart and softened me up to really feel the emotions.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I guess next year I'll retell it somewhere.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: So if you've got any ideas,
26:36
SPEAKER_00: dear ones,
26:37
SPEAKER_00: of a really gorgeous space that I could tell this story,
26:43
SPEAKER_00: my version,
26:44
SPEAKER_00: however it turns out,
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Let me know.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to do that.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: I imagine about kind of Easter time.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: I like to for stories to to germinate.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the story will be my my winter seeding.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: So next week will be the solstice and I've got the gorgeous Ted Waters farmer and
27:14
SPEAKER_00: folk singer on chatting and singing.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Really, really, really special.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, maybe I'll see you at the Snow King.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Snow King.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking about the King's tears in his eyes.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: The Snow Queen on the 19th of July,
27:32
SPEAKER_00: seven o'clock at Glastonbury Goddess House with the gorgeous Sarah Curtis.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: That's coming along nicely, but it was nice to sort of dive into another story tonight.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: um and yes i wanted to tell you about my retreat um just i know that you're
27:53
SPEAKER_00: thinking of coming i've got six places left and i'd love them to be um yeah i'd
28:00
SPEAKER_00: love them to be filled
28:01
SPEAKER_00: It's at the Chalicewell Gardens, which is a really special place.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: There's a retreat house in the centre of the Chalicewell Gardens,
28:09
SPEAKER_00: and it means that we'll have the gardens at night so that we can create ritual and
28:16
SPEAKER_00: ceremony and really witness each other using myth and story and other magical ways,
28:24
SPEAKER_00: really witness each other in whatever we want to do
28:29
SPEAKER_00: emerge that week that comes out of the story of Tatterhood which I'll tell next
28:34
SPEAKER_00: year too so for now blessings and um yeah love you feel a bit silly saying that but
28:44
SPEAKER_00: it's how I feel lots of love