بخش 127 - رفتن قاضی به خانهٔ زن جوحی و حلقه زدن جوحی به خشم بر در و گریختن قاضی در صندوقی الی آخره

The guile of woman is infinite. The sagacious cadi went at night to the wife (of Júhí) ut cum ea coiret.

The wife set two (lighted) candles and the dessert for his entertainment. “(I can do) without this drink,” said he: “I am intoxicated (with love).”

At that moment Júhí came and knocked at the door: the cadi looked for a place into which he could slink for refuge.

He saw no hiding-place but a chest: in his fright the man went into the chest.

(Then) Júhí came in and said (to his wife), “O spouse, O thou who art my plague (both) in spring and autumn,

What do I possess that is not sacrificed to thee: (why, then, is it) that thou art always crying out at me?

Thou hast let loose thy tongue at my dry crusts: now thou callest me ‘pauper,’ now ‘cuckold.’

If, my dear, I suffer from these two maladies, one (the latter) comes from thee and the other from God.

What do I possess but that chest, which is a source of suspicion and a ground for (evil) surmise?

People think I keep gold in it, and because of these (false) opinions charity is withheld from me.

The appearance of the chest is very pleasing, but it is quite empty of goods and silver and gold.

(’Tis) like the person of a hypocrite, (one who is) handsome and dignified; (but) in the basket you will find nothing except a snake.

To-morrow I will take the chest into the street and burn it in the midst of the market at the cross-ways,

That true believer and Zoroastrian and Jew may see there was nothing in this chest but (cause for) cursing.”

“O husband,” cried the woman, “come now, give up this (idea)!” (However), he swore several times that he would do just as he had said.

Early (next morning) he (went) like the wind, fetched a porter, and immediately put the chest on his back.

(He set off with it, while) the cadi inside the chest shouted in an agony (of terror), “O porter! O porter!”

The porter looked to the right and the left to see from what direction the shouts and warnings were coming.

“I wonder,” said he, “is it a hátif, this voice which is calling me, or is it a peri (jinní) summoning me mysteriously?”

When the shouts followed one another in succession and increased, he said, “’Tis not a hátif,” and recovered himself.

At last he perceived that the shouts and cries for help came from the chest and that somebody was concealed in it.

The lover who has fallen passionately in love with an (earthly) object of affection has gone into the chest, though (in appearance) he is outside.

He has spent (wasted) his life in the chest on account of (worldly) cares: he can see nothing of the world except a chest.

The head that is not (raised) above the sky—know that it is (confined) in that chest by its vain desires.

When he (such an one) goes forth from the chest of the body, he will (only) go from one tomb to another tomb.

This topic is endless. The cadi said to him, “O porter, O carrier of the chest,

Give news of me to my deputy at the court of justice and acquaint him with all (the details of) this (affair) as quickly as possible,

In order that he may buy this (chest) with gold from this witless fellow and take it fastened, just as it is, to my house.”

O Lord, appoint a spiritually endowed company to redeem us from the chest of the body!

Who but the prophets and apostles can redeem the people from confinement in the chest of guile?

Among thousands there is (only) one person of comely aspect, who knows that he is inside the chest.

He must formerly have beheld the (spiritual) world, so that by means of that contrary this contrary should be made evident to him.

Because “knowledge is the true believer's lost camel,” he recognises his own lost camel and feels certain (that it is his).

(But) he that has never seen good fortune, how will he be perturbed in this calamity?

Either he fell into captivity in childhood, or was born a slave at first from his mother's womb.

His soul has never known the delight of (spiritual) freedom: the chest of (phenomenal) forms is his arena.

His mind is for ever imprisoned in forms: he (only) passes from cage into cage.

He has no means of passing beyond the cage (and going) aloft: he goes to and fro into (successive) cages.

In the Qur’án (is the text), “If ye have the power, pass beyond”: these words came from Him (God) to the Jinn and mankind.

He said, “There is no way for you to pass beyond the sky save by (Divine) authority and by inspiration from Heaven.”

If he (any one) go from chest to chest, he is not of Heaven, he is of the chest (the lower world).

The pleasure of changing his chest (only) stupefies him anew: he does not perceive that he is inside the chest.

If he is not deluded by (all) these chests, he seeks release and deliverance, like the cadi.

Know that the mark of one who apprehends this is his crying for help and being in terror.

Like the cadi, he will be quaking (with fear): how should a breath of joy rise from his soul?