144
a means[1] of security[2] against vexation.[3] A friend of mine once related to me and said, “We attained [whiles] to security[2] against vexation,[3]and the origin of it was other than this; to wit, it was as follows:[4]
- ↑ Or “cause” (sebeb).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Or “preservation” (selameh).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Or “turpitude, anything that is hateful or vexatious” (keraheh).
- ↑ These preliminary words of Shehrzad have no apparent connection with the story that immediately follows and which is only her own told in the third person, and it is difficult to understand why they should be here introduced. The author may have intended to connect them with the story by means of a further development of the latter and with the characteristic carelessness of the Eastern story-teller, forgotten or neglected to carry out his intention; or, again, it is possible that the words in question may have been intended as an introduction to the Story of the Favourite and her Lover (see post, p. 165), to which they seem more suitable, and have been misplaced by an error of transcription. In any case, the text is probably (as usual) corrupt.
