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Arabian Nights · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

0:09
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Mooney's Mythic Podcast,
0:12
SPEAKER_01: a root all about in the handbag,
0:14
SPEAKER_01: soul life and mythic wonder of host Sarah Mooney.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: And I'm right here with you now, guys.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm right here,
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SPEAKER_01: sitting by my fire,
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SPEAKER_01: longing to be lost in a story,
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SPEAKER_01: longing to be massaged by wonder and filled with detail.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I'm going to do for you today.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to read to you.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to read from this gorgeous book, Arabian Nights.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: is a really really really old story this version which was translated from french
0:57
SPEAKER_01: is from 1927 and the story goes in persia that a king i think his wife died and
1:08
SPEAKER_01: he's really unhappy and he's um the way that he is um acting is that he marries a
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SPEAKER_01: young girl and
1:16
SPEAKER_01: And he has her condemned to death on her wedding day.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: And he's going through women at a rate of knots.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: His heart's so black, he's so full of grief and people are putting him under pressure to marry.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: So he's marrying and then he's just casting them off to their death.
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SPEAKER_01: And he's got an advisor.
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SPEAKER_01: And all the advisor cares about,
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SPEAKER_01: the vizier,
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SPEAKER_01: is that his daughter doesn't get chosen because she is single and she's of the
1:45
SPEAKER_01: right age.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: And to his horror, she puts herself forward.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: And so he's about to condemn her to death.
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SPEAKER_01: The marriage has occurred.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: And she says, let me tell you a story before you do.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: And she tells him a story.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: She puts every twist and turn and enticement in it.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: And then just as day breaks, she does a great work.
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SPEAKER_01: line of duty Jed Mercurio moment where she just leaves him hanging and desperate to
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SPEAKER_01: know what's happening next so he lets her live another night and then another night
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SPEAKER_01: and another night and her stories are filled with powerful kings and she inflates
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SPEAKER_01: his
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SPEAKER_01: ego and she flatters him and she tantalises him with sex and wonder but she also
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SPEAKER_01: she talks about justice and fairness and what you know the mark of a good king
2:43
SPEAKER_01: would be to take pity on people and to protect people and and through these stories
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SPEAKER_01: over a thousand and one nights
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SPEAKER_01: she weaves tales that are so rich so luxurious so full that he falls in love with
3:01
SPEAKER_01: her and by the end of a thousand one nights they live happily ever after as in
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SPEAKER_01: stories you do so i've got um i think there are seven of them there might be nine
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SPEAKER_01: i'm not sure because i've only got volumes five and six beautifully cloth bound um
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SPEAKER_01: inlaid with gold
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SPEAKER_01: I really love them and I'm going to read one story to you.
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SPEAKER_01: And the fire's happy.
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SPEAKER_01: The fire's just perked up its ears to listen.
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SPEAKER_01: So here we go.
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SPEAKER_01: And each story begins pretty much like this.
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SPEAKER_01: It is related, oh auspicious king.
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SPEAKER_01: So here we go.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: Have you got maybe you want to pause this and you want to just get that if you've
3:47
SPEAKER_01: got a bit of Turkish delight in the back of the cupboard or make yourself a nice
3:51
SPEAKER_01: warm hot chocolate.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: I've just had a little slice of orange.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: That's the most exotic thing I could find in my kitchen.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: I had a little slice of orange and it felt good.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: Do you want syringe?
4:02
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to read this, but maybe if we read another story another time, I'll do it with a musician.
4:08
SPEAKER_01: That would be nice, wouldn't it?
4:09
SPEAKER_01: I have got some bells next to me that I might jingle at some point.
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SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: It is related,
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SPEAKER_01: O auspicious king,
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SPEAKER_01: that there was once,
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SPEAKER_01: in the days of long ago,
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SPEAKER_01: a king of Persia named Kushra Shah.
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SPEAKER_01: But Allah knows all,
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SPEAKER_01: whom the giver had dowered with power,
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SPEAKER_01: beauty and youth,
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SPEAKER_01: and above all with so just a heart,
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SPEAKER_01: that during his reign,
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SPEAKER_01: the tiger and the kid walked side by side and drank together from the same stream.
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SPEAKER_01: You can see how brilliantly she's introducing these ideas of what a good king looks like.
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SPEAKER_01: You can see him stroking his silken beard and thinking, I am such a king.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: This king,
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SPEAKER_01: delighted to see for himself what passed in his capital city and used to walk about
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SPEAKER_01: at night,
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SPEAKER_01: disguised as a foreign merchant,
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SPEAKER_01: accompanied by his vizier or some other dignitary of the palace.
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SPEAKER_01: One night,
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SPEAKER_01: as he wandered through the poorest quarter of the city and was passing the mouth of
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SPEAKER_01: a little court,
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SPEAKER_01: he heard young voices talking from the end of it.
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SPEAKER_01: Entering with his companion,
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SPEAKER_01: he perceived that the voices came from a very small and humble house,
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SPEAKER_01: so he placed his eye to a crack in the door and looked within.
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SPEAKER_01: He saw three young girls chatting together,
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SPEAKER_01: seated about the light upon a mat which bore the remnants of their evening meal.
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SPEAKER_01: These girls, who were as like as sisters, were entirely beautiful.
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SPEAKER_01: but the youngest was visibly fairer than the other two.
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SPEAKER_01: The eldest said, ''Are we talking of wishes?
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SPEAKER_01: My wish is to marry the Sultan's pastry cook.
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SPEAKER_01: Oh,
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SPEAKER_01: you know how I love pastries,
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SPEAKER_01: and especially those admirably delicate and delicious leaved cakes,
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SPEAKER_01: which are called Sultan cakes.
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SPEAKER_01: Only the king's pastry cook can make them.''
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SPEAKER_01: I am sure,
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SPEAKER_01: dear sisters,
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SPEAKER_01: that you would be wholeheartedly jealous of me when you saw how a diet of fine
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SPEAKER_01: pastry could round out my white curves and delicately calm the colour of my cheeks.
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SPEAKER_01: Reminds me that I used to hang out with a guy who was a chef and we would spend
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SPEAKER_01: Sundays lying in bed reading cookbooks,
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SPEAKER_01: which was interesting.
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SPEAKER_01: The second said, I am not so ambitious.
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SPEAKER_01: I would be content to marry the Sultan's cook.
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SPEAKER_01: How I should love to do so.
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SPEAKER_01: I could satisfy all my repressed desires for those rich and extraordinary meats
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SPEAKER_01: which are only served at the palace,
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SPEAKER_01: especially those baked,
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SPEAKER_01: stuffed cucumbers which trouble my heart when I only see them carried on the heads
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SPEAKER_01: of porters during the king's feast days.
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SPEAKER_01: How I would eat,
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SPEAKER_01: and if my husband allowed me,
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SPEAKER_01: I would bring you some of those cucumbers from time to time,
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SPEAKER_01: but I fear that he would not allow me
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SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if Scheherazade, that's her name, did I say that?
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SPEAKER_01: Scheherazade is the young woman's name who's telling these stories.
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SPEAKER_01: And we're on book five, so we're like over halfway through.
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SPEAKER_01: I wonder what she's eating.
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SPEAKER_01: I wonder if she's eaten.
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SPEAKER_01: I wonder if she's famished and she's telling these stories of food because she's hungry.
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SPEAKER_01: The two sisters,
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SPEAKER_01: who had already expressed their wishes,
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SPEAKER_01: turned to the third,
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SPEAKER_01: who kept silence and asked jestingly,
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SPEAKER_01: "'What is your wish,
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SPEAKER_01: little one?
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SPEAKER_01: Why do you lower your eyes and not speak?
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SPEAKER_01: Don't be anxious,
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SPEAKER_01: for when we are married,
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SPEAKER_01: we promise to arrange a wedding for you with one of your royal grooms,
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SPEAKER_01: one of the royal grooms,
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SPEAKER_01: so that you may be ever near us.
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SPEAKER_01: Is that your wish?'
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SPEAKER_01: The youngest blushed and answered in his voice as pleasant as running water.
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SPEAKER_01: "'Oh, my sisters!'
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SPEAKER_01: As she spoke no more,
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SPEAKER_01: the other two laughed and goaded at her until she decided to tell all and said
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SPEAKER_01: without raising her eyes,
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SPEAKER_01: "'My wish is to marry our master,
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SPEAKER_01: the Sultan.
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SPEAKER_01: I would give him fair posterity.
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SPEAKER_01: Our sons should be worthy of their father.'
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SPEAKER_01: and our daughter would be a smile of the sky and i should love her her hair would
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SPEAKER_01: be silver and gold her tears if she wept would be falling pearls her laughter if
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SPEAKER_01: she laughed would be gold coins and if she smiled her smiles would be buds of rose
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SPEAKER_01: glowing upon her lips
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SPEAKER_01: Kushra Shah and his vizier saw and heard these things,
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SPEAKER_01: but at this point they retired,
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SPEAKER_01: fearing to be discovered.
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SPEAKER_01: The sultan felt a desire to satisfy these three wishes growing amongst the laughter
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SPEAKER_01: of his heart,
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SPEAKER_01: so he bade his companion mark down the house that he might fetch the three girls on
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SPEAKER_01: the morrow into the royal presence.
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SPEAKER_01: Next morning, the vizier executed this order and brought the three sisters before the throne.
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SPEAKER_01: At a sign from the king's head,
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SPEAKER_01: the three came nearer,
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SPEAKER_01: trembling,
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SPEAKER_01: and the Sultan smiled good-naturedly upon them as he said,
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SPEAKER_01: Peace be with you,
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SPEAKER_01: O young girls.
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SPEAKER_01: Today is the day of your destiny,
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SPEAKER_01: when the wishes of your heart shall be accomplished,
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SPEAKER_01: and I know what those wishes are.
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SPEAKER_01: O young girls, for nothing is hidden from the kings of the world.
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SPEAKER_01: O eldest, you shall marry our pastry cook, and you, O second sister, shall marry our cook.
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SPEAKER_01: Then the king paused and turned to the third sister,
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SPEAKER_01: whose heart beat so violently that she was like to sink to the carpet.
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SPEAKER_01: He raised her up and made her sit on the bed of the throne.
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SPEAKER_01: You are my queen, he said, and this palace is your palace.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's not forget that.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's say things aloud.
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SPEAKER_01: Like, let's not compromise.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's say what we want, what we want out loud.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's just do it now in this little moment of the story.
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SPEAKER_01: Just say out loud, declare, what is it we want?
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SPEAKER_01: I want... Oh, it's embarrassing, isn't it?
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SPEAKER_01: I wanted to say then I want a gold fountain pen.
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SPEAKER_01: But I stopped myself because I thought it wouldn't advance my career.
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SPEAKER_01: I want a gold fountain pen engraved with rich Arabic words and filled with the
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SPEAKER_01: finest inks,
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SPEAKER_01: a pen that glides across the page.
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SPEAKER_01: And I know with every word I write that I am writing mistress piece after mistress
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SPEAKER_01: piece after duchess piece after queen piece.
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SPEAKER_01: This masterpiece doesn't quite fit it, does it?
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SPEAKER_01: At least we'll get back to the story.
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SPEAKER_01: The three weddings took place that day,
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SPEAKER_01: the Queen's in unprecedented splendour and that of the other girls with the
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SPEAKER_01: ordinary usages which have befitted their husband's rank.
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SPEAKER_01: Thus spite and jealousy entered the hearts of the two older sisters and even so
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SPEAKER_01: soon they began to plot the downfall of their youngest.
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SPEAKER_01: Yet they were careful not to let their feelings show and accepted with feigned
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SPEAKER_01: gratitude the marks of affection and unusual liberties of intimacy,
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SPEAKER_01: which their sister heaped upon them in spite of the low degree.
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SPEAKER_01: Far from being satisfied with the realisation of their wishes,
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SPEAKER_01: they were tortured with hate and envy for the good fortune of the Queen.
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SPEAKER_01: After nine months,
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SPEAKER_01: Allah allowed the Queen to give birth to a princely boy as fair as the crescent of
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SPEAKER_01: the new moon.
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SPEAKER_01: Because she requested it, her two sisters were her midwives.
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SPEAKER_01: But instead of being touched by her favour and the beauty of the child,
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SPEAKER_01: they found in this birth an occasion to break the heart of their sister.
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SPEAKER_01: While the mother was still in her pains,
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SPEAKER_01: they took the child and set it aside in a basket,
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SPEAKER_01: substituting it for a little dead dog,
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SPEAKER_01: which they showed to the women of the palace as the fruit of the queen's labour.
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SPEAKER_01: Kushra Shah saw the world darken before his eyes when he heard this thing,
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SPEAKER_01: and he shut himself away,
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SPEAKER_01: refusing all care for the kingdom.
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SPEAKER_01: But the queen's grief was greater.
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SPEAKER_01: Her soul was humbled, and her heart was wracked by grief.
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SPEAKER_01: The two aunts set the basket of the newborn child afloat on the running water of a
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SPEAKER_01: canal which washed the foot of the palace.
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SPEAKER_01: But destiny had decreed that the sultan's chief gardener should see the basket
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SPEAKER_01: floating by as he walked on the side of the canal.
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SPEAKER_01: Guiding it ashore with a spade, he looked within and saw the handsome infant.
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SPEAKER_01: It's like Moses and the bull rushes, isn't it?
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SPEAKER_01: You may be sure that his astonishment was as great as that of Pharaoh's daughter
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SPEAKER_01: when she found Moses among the reeds.
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SPEAKER_01: Oh, there.
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SPEAKER_01: We've just called him Moses.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking as well of Keridwyn when she casts the baby out that is to become Taliesin in that story.
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SPEAKER_01: It's a motif, isn't it?
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SPEAKER_01: Casting the baby amongst the waters.
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SPEAKER_01: The chief gardener had been married for many years,
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SPEAKER_01: and though he and his wife ardently desired children,
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SPEAKER_01: none had been vouchsafed by the Almighty.
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SPEAKER_01: Therefore, the two had lived sadly in the isolation of the barren.
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SPEAKER_01: I mean, what a great line is that?
14:11
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, the two had lived sadly in the isolation of the barren.
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SPEAKER_01: thus it was that when the gardener discovered the perfect child he took it up in
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SPEAKER_01: the basket and ran joyfully to his own house at the farther end of the king's
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SPEAKER_01: garden peace be upon you old daughter of my uncle he cried in a broken voice to his
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SPEAKER_01: wife
14:38
SPEAKER_01: See what the generous has sent us upon a blessed day.
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SPEAKER_01: This child, who is the child of destiny, shall be our child also.
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SPEAKER_01: He told his wife of the manner in which Allah had answered their constant prayers,
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SPEAKER_01: and she took the child and loved it.
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SPEAKER_01: Glory be to Allah,
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SPEAKER_01: who had planted the seed of motherhood in the breasts of barren women,
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SPEAKER_01: as he has given to lonely hens the instinct to cover pebbles when they have no eggs.
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SPEAKER_01: At this point, Shaharazad saw the approach of mourning and discreetly fell silent.
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SPEAKER_01: But when the 775th night had come, she said,
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SPEAKER_01: In the following year,
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SPEAKER_01: the bereaved queen again gave birth to a son,
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SPEAKER_01: and he was fairer if possible than the first.
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SPEAKER_01: But the hatred of the two sisters was not abated,
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SPEAKER_01: and they played the same pitiless trick upon their sister,
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SPEAKER_01: setting adrift the second baby on the canal and showing a young cat to the palace
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SPEAKER_01: as the fruit of the queen's labour.
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SPEAKER_01: Consternation took hold of every heart and the sultan's shame was so great that he
15:54
SPEAKER_01: might have given himself up to fury.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking now of the story of the Handless Maiden because in the story of the
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Handless Maiden,
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SPEAKER_01: the devil switches notes and he says that the baby is an animal and the king says
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SPEAKER_01: still love it.
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SPEAKER_01: Consternation took hold of every heart and the sultan's shame was so great that he
16:26
SPEAKER_01: might have given himself up to fury if the virtues of humility and justice had not
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SPEAKER_01: been so deeply implanted in his soul.
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SPEAKER_01: He
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SPEAKER_01: She's really going for it there, isn't she?
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SPEAKER_01: Should we read that again?
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SPEAKER_01: Just remembering that she is telling stories to win the heart of a king who has,
16:45
SPEAKER_01: well,
16:45
SPEAKER_01: to save her own life,
16:47
SPEAKER_01: but to win the heart of a king who's been killing his wife's book.
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SPEAKER_01: She's got away with 775 nights of not being killed, but she's still laying it on thick how good he is.
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SPEAKER_01: And she's been so brave to put herself forward.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: She's put herself forward because she can't stand
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SPEAKER_01: The death of all the girls.
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SPEAKER_01: So let's just read that again.
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SPEAKER_01: And the sultan's shame was so great that he might have given himself up to fury if
17:18
SPEAKER_01: the virtues of humility and justice had not been so deeply implanted in his soul.
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SPEAKER_01: Gorgeous.
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SPEAKER_01: The queen was drowned in bitterness and her heart wept.
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SPEAKER_01: Allah,
17:33
SPEAKER_01: who watches over little children,
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SPEAKER_01: caused the basket of the second son to swim into the chief gardener's view so that
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SPEAKER_01: he was saved from the water and taken up and adopted as his brother had been.
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SPEAKER_01: And I think she talks about Allah.
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SPEAKER_01: I think she's kind of weaving in a little notion as well that it's God's will and
17:55
SPEAKER_01: that they're married in the eyes of God.
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SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's all she's been very clever.
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SPEAKER_01: And so that he was saved from the water and taken up and adopted as his brother had been.
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SPEAKER_01: And that all might be fulfilled, he quickened the queen a third time.
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SPEAKER_01: I should imagine that's Alla she's talking about there.
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SPEAKER_01: And she gave birth to a princess.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: But the jealousy of the two elder sisters had increased with time and they were
18:27
SPEAKER_01: determined to compass the queen's final destruction by abandoning the little girl
18:31
SPEAKER_01: in the same way.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: Compass her destruction, I love that.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: However,
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SPEAKER_01: she was saved by the large-hearted gardener,
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SPEAKER_01: even as her two brothers had been,
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SPEAKER_01: and cared for and nourished and loved by the same foster parents.
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SPEAKER_01: This time,
18:48
SPEAKER_01: the two sisters produced a little blind mouse as the new offspring,
18:51
SPEAKER_01: and the Sultan,
18:53
SPEAKER_01: in spite of his sense of justice,
18:55
SPEAKER_01: could contain his fury no longer.
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SPEAKER_01: Allah has cursed my race because of this woman, he cried.
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SPEAKER_01: I have taken a monster to be the mother of my children.
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SPEAKER_01: Only death can assoil my dwelling from such a taint.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: He pronounced sentence of death against his queen and bade his executioner be present.
19:16
SPEAKER_01: when he saw her dear form which he had loved standing before him drowned in tears
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SPEAKER_01: he felt great pity and turning aside his head bade the woman be shut for the rest
19:31
SPEAKER_01: of her days in a closet in the depths of the palace there she stayed with her tears
19:37
SPEAKER_01: a prey to all the sorrows of the world
19:41
SPEAKER_01: good idea if you have a little feeling that you want to kill me maybe you just shut
19:46
SPEAKER_01: me up in prison instead maybe she was just having a bit of a wobble there maybe she
19:51
SPEAKER_01: wanted him to in not in a blind rage but in a more of a conscious place feel what
19:59
SPEAKER_01: that is like to put a woman to death
20:04
SPEAKER_01: But her two sisters knew the great joy of a satisfied hatred and were able to stuff
20:10
SPEAKER_01: themselves without bitterness with the dishes of their husband's confecting.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: What was it?
20:16
SPEAKER_01: It was a pastry chef and...
20:18
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember,
20:21
SPEAKER_01: but I think...
20:23
SPEAKER_01: Mmm...
20:24
SPEAKER_01: What would I like my husband to make me?
20:28
SPEAKER_01: Mmm...
20:34
SPEAKER_01: thinking about cinnamon and I'm thinking about dates I'm thinking about kind of
20:40
SPEAKER_01: pastry that's just light enough but greasy and yeah but kind of small you know so
20:45
SPEAKER_01: you can have a few small ones or not feel really fatty and I'm also a Ferrero
20:52
SPEAKER_01: Rocher I confess that Ferrero Rocher just just flashed in front of my eyes then so
20:59
SPEAKER_01: um that would probably do easily pleased
21:05
SPEAKER_01: Here are we.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: Okay,
21:06
SPEAKER_01: so the sisters are still stuffing themselves silly because they're satisfied and
21:13
SPEAKER_01: the princess is locked up with all her sorrows.
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SPEAKER_01: The day and the years passed as swiftly over the heads of the innocent as over the
21:22
SPEAKER_01: heads of the guilty,
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SPEAKER_01: bearing at an equal rate a destiny to all.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: The gardener's three adopted children grew to so exquisite a youth that the eyes of
21:34
SPEAKER_01: all were startled at beholding them.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: The eldest was called Farid, the second Farooz, and the third Farizad.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Parizad was a smile of the sky.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: Her hair was silver and gold.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: Her tears when she wept were falling pearls.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: Her laughter when she laughed was gold coins.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: And when she smiled, her smile to a bud of rose, buds of rose glowing upon her lips.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: That's what her mum said she would be, isn't it?
22:04
SPEAKER_01: Her father,
22:05
SPEAKER_01: her mother and her brothers,
22:07
SPEAKER_01: when they called her by her name,
22:08
SPEAKER_01: Farizad,
22:10
SPEAKER_01: could not help adding rose smile,
22:12
SPEAKER_01: but more often they called her simply rose smile.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: Folk marveled at her beauty,
22:20
SPEAKER_01: wisdom and sweetness,
22:21
SPEAKER_01: and at her strength when she rode out to hunt with her brothers,
22:25
SPEAKER_01: or shot with the bow in their company,
22:27
SPEAKER_01: or hurled the javelin.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: They marvelled at the elegance of her manners,
22:32
SPEAKER_01: her knowledge of poetry and occult science,
22:35
SPEAKER_01: and the splendour of her hair,
22:37
SPEAKER_01: which was silver and gold.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: Her mother's friends wept with emotion to look upon her.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: While his adopted children had grown up about him,
22:51
SPEAKER_01: the king's gardener had passed,
22:53
SPEAKER_01: amid their loving respect and cheered by their great beauty,
22:56
SPEAKER_01: into the confines of extreme old age.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: But his wife went before him into the mercy of Allah,
23:03
SPEAKER_01: and this death was so great a grief to the small family that the gardener resolved
23:08
SPEAKER_01: to stay no more in that house where the dead woman had been the serene source of
23:14
SPEAKER_01: all their happiness.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: so she's reminding him Scheherazade through this story of his own death of his own
23:23
SPEAKER_01: wife and how much he loved her so he's able to feel those feelings she's bringing
23:29
SPEAKER_01: him a lot into his feelings I think um and I think if he's in his feelings and and
23:36
SPEAKER_01: through these nights he can feel them and he can grieve and
23:40
SPEAKER_01: he can let go and he can stop murdering the young, innocent women that are coming to him.
23:51
SPEAKER_01: He threw himself at the sultan's feet and begged to be relieved of that office
23:56
SPEAKER_01: which he had borne for so many years,
24:01
SPEAKER_01: and the king regretfully gave him leave to depart,
24:04
SPEAKER_01: but he would not let him go until he had given him a magnificent dwelling near the city,
24:09
SPEAKER_01: with great policies of arable land,
24:11
SPEAKER_01: woods and fields,
24:12
SPEAKER_01: and having in the midst of a perfect garden laid out by the old man himself
24:17
SPEAKER_01: and a vast park stretching between high walls peopled with coloured birds and
24:22
SPEAKER_01: beasts wild and tame a palace richly furnished after the old man's heart
24:30
SPEAKER_01: The good old gardener lived pleasantly for some time in this retreat,
24:35
SPEAKER_01: surrounded by the affectionate care of the three children,
24:39
SPEAKER_01: and then passed into the peace of our Lord.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: He was wept as a real father has seldom been wept.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Moreover,
24:46
SPEAKER_01: he carried with him beneath that stone which is never lifted,
24:50
SPEAKER_01: the little which he knew concerning the birth of Farid,
24:54
SPEAKER_01: Farouz and Farizad.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: The brothers lived with their sister in this domain of natural beauty and had no
25:03
SPEAKER_01: other dream or ambition,
25:04
SPEAKER_01: for they had been taught with wisdom and simplicity.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: The two boys would often go hunting in far woods and fields,
25:12
SPEAKER_01: while Farizad of the Rose's Smile preferred to wander in the gardens.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: One day,
25:19
SPEAKER_01: as she was about to visit them,
25:21
SPEAKER_01: her slave informed her that an old woman was at the gate,
25:25
SPEAKER_01: marked with every sign of benediction,
25:28
SPEAKER_01: who solicited permission to repose for an hour or two in the shade of the wonderful trees.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Farizade,
25:37
SPEAKER_01: whose heart was as compassionate as her body and soul were beautiful,
25:41
SPEAKER_01: received the old woman in person and fed her from a porcelain dish of fruit,
25:46
SPEAKER_01: pastry and both dry and wet conserve.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: Then she led her through the gardens,
25:52
SPEAKER_01: for she had learnt that it is always profitable to listen to the words of those to
25:57
SPEAKER_01: whom years have brought experience.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: Rose's smile sustained the tottering feet of her guests through the alleys and at
26:07
SPEAKER_01: last she sat down beside her in the shade of the most handsome tree which the
26:12
SPEAKER_01: garden held.
26:14
SPEAKER_01: After edifying talk of this and that,
26:17
SPEAKER_01: she asked the old woman what she thought of the domain and if it pleased her.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: The old woman reflected for an hour and then answered.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Dear Mistress,
26:30
SPEAKER_01: I have spent a long life wandering over the length and breadth of Allah's world,
26:37
SPEAKER_01: and I have never rested.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: in a more delightful spot.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: But just because you are unparalleled upon earth as the sun is unparalleled in heaven,
26:48
SPEAKER_01: I cannot help wishing that this fair garden,
26:51
SPEAKER_01: which holds you,
26:53
SPEAKER_01: held also the three incomparable things which it lacks at present.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: Farizard of the Rose's smile was astonished that her garden should lack three
27:05
SPEAKER_01: incomparable things and said to the old woman,
27:09
SPEAKER_01: She was silent for a moment and then said,
27:27
SPEAKER_01: Dear Mistress,
27:28
SPEAKER_01: if the first of these things were in your garden,
27:31
SPEAKER_01: all the birds would flock together to regard it,
27:34
SPEAKER_01: and would sing in chorus for the nightingales,
27:37
SPEAKER_01: chaffinches,
27:38
SPEAKER_01: larks,
27:39
SPEAKER_01: warblers,
27:40
SPEAKER_01: goldfinches and doves,
27:41
SPEAKER_01: together with all the infinite race of the birds,
27:44
SPEAKER_01: would recognise its supremacy.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: It is Bulbul Ahazah, the talking bird.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: If the second of these incomparable things were in your garden,
27:56
SPEAKER_01: the light wind would leave singing among the trees to hear it,
28:00
SPEAKER_01: and the lutes and harps of your home would break their chords.
28:03
SPEAKER_01: For the light wind singing among the trees and the lutes and the harps of your home
28:07
SPEAKER_01: would recognise its supremacy.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: It is the singing tree.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: And neither the light wind in the trees,
28:15
SPEAKER_01: nor lutes and harps,
28:16
SPEAKER_01: can make so musical a harmony as the thousand invisible mouths which are its leaves.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Dear Mistress,
28:25
SPEAKER_01: if the third incomparable thing were in your garden,
28:29
SPEAKER_01: the waters of your garden would cease to run murmuring to look upon it.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: For the waters of land and sea,
28:37
SPEAKER_01: with runlets and waves,
28:39
SPEAKER_01: with proud rivers marching through cities and tiny brooks babbling among flower beds,
28:45
SPEAKER_01: would recognise its supremacy.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: It is the gold water.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: A single drop let fall in an empty basin will swell and jet up a birth of golden sprays,
29:01
SPEAKER_01: rising and falling and never overflowing.
29:05
SPEAKER_01: With that water,
29:06
SPEAKER_01: which is all gold and has the transparency of the topaz,
29:11
SPEAKER_01: Bulub al-Hazar,
29:12
SPEAKER_01: the talking bird,
29:13
SPEAKER_01: quenches his thirst.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: And by that water, gold and topaz cool, the thousand mouths of the singing leaves of the tree are slaked.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: O my mistress,
29:25
SPEAKER_01: O princess,
29:26
SPEAKER_01: if these three marvellous things were in your garden,
29:30
SPEAKER_01: your beauty would be exalted,
29:33
SPEAKER_01: O child of the shining hair.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: At this point, Shaharazad saw the approach of mourning and discreetly fell silent.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where I'm going to fall silent too.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: And I'll read you the rest of the story, the end of the story, at the beginning of the next podcast.
30:00
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: If you want to come and hear me tell stories in person,
30:06
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to do some storytelling on the 19th of December in Glastonbury.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to tell some stories at the Goddess House.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm going to creep to a night at St.
30:18
SPEAKER_01: Benedict's Church where there's a whole host of different people doing different things for the solstice.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to tell a bedtime story with the wonderful Dagon playing some music
30:31
SPEAKER_01: with me,
30:32
SPEAKER_01: which sounds great.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: And it's not only going to be B&U on this pod for the next while.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: I have got some guests lined up.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: I've got the beautiful Ted Waters lined up to sing for and with us to help us winter and still.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: And Charlotte Mabon is going to come on also, exquisite musician.
30:58
SPEAKER_01: She'll come and reach some tender places.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Jenny Bliss Bennett.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: rock and roll absolute goddess of a multi-instrumentalist who um it yeah is a real
31:14
SPEAKER_01: inspiration to me and it's someone who i've done lots of storytelling with reema
31:19
SPEAKER_01: stains the artist is going to come on and talk to us and soon and maybe even for
31:24
SPEAKER_01: the second half of this story and
31:27
SPEAKER_01: The sound healer,
31:28
SPEAKER_01: Sophie Pullinger,
31:30
SPEAKER_01: is going to come on and deepen and deepen and deepen us with her sound.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: Look forward to that.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: And if you think,
31:41
SPEAKER_01: oh,
31:43
SPEAKER_01: that woman,
31:43
SPEAKER_01: Sarah Mooney,
31:44
SPEAKER_01: she really deserves a pint of Guinness,
31:47
SPEAKER_01: then you want to go onto my Patreon page and sign up for a pints worth.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm well up for that.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: If there's any way that you can uphold, support or share this pod, that would be great for me.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: But for now, tatty bye.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to Mooney's Mythic Podcast with your host, Sarah Mooney.