Antoine Galland, from the telling of Hannā Diyāb · Complete work
Morgiana's Dance
Morgiana's Dance of 14. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
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Quand Morgiane eut achevé de servir, ou de faire servir par Abdalla, elle prit le temps pendant que l’on soupoit, et fit les préparatifs nécessaires pour l’exécution d’un coup des plus hardis; et elle venoit d’achever lors qu’Abdalla vint l’avertir qu’il étoit temps de servir le fruit. Elle porta le fruit; et dès qu’Abdalla eut levé ce qui étoit sur la table, elle le servit. Ensuite elle posa près d’Ali Baba une petite table sur laquelle elle mit le vin avec trois tasses; et en sortant elle emmena Abdalla avec elle, comme pour aller souper ensemble, et donner à Ali Baba, selon la coutume, la liberté de s’entretenir et de se réjouir agréablement avec son hôte, et de le faire bien boire.
Alors, le faux Cogia Houssain, ou plutôt le capitaine des quarante voleurs, crut que l’occasion favorable pour ôter la vie à Ali Baba étoit venue.
« Je vais, dit-il en lui-même, faire enivrer le père et le fils; et le fils, à qui je veux bien donner la vie, ne m’empêchera pas d’enfoncer le poignard dans le cœur du père, et je me sauverai par le jardin, comme je l’ai déjà fait, pendant que la cuisinière et l’esclave n’auront pas encore achevé de souper ou seront endormis dans la cuisine. »
Au lieu de souper, Morgiane qui avoit pénétré dans l’intention du faux Cogia Houssain, ne lui donna pas le temps de venir à l’exécution de sa méchanceté. Elle s’habilla d’un habit de danseuse fort propre, prit une coiffure convenable, et se ceignit d’une ceinture d’argent doré, où elle attacha un poignard, dont la gaine et le manche étoient de même métal; et avec cela elle appliqua un fort beau masque sur son visage. Quand elle se fut déguisée de la sorte, elle dit à Abdalla:
« Abdalla, prends ton tambour de basque, et allons donner à l’hôte de notre maître, et ami de son fils, le divertissemment que nous lui donnons quelquefois. »
Abdalla prend le tambour de basque; il commence à en jouer en marchant devant Morgiane, et il entre dans la salle. Morgiane en entrant après lui, fait une profonde révérence d’un air délibéré et à se faire regarder, comme en demandant la permission de faire voir ce qu’elle savoit faire.
Comme Abdalla vit qu’Ali Baba vouloit parler, il cessa de toucher le tambour de basque.
« Entre, Morgiane, entre, dit Ali Baba: Cogia Houssain jugera de quoi tu es capable, et il nous dira ce qu’il en pensera. Au moins, Seigneur, dit-il à Cogia Houssain en se tournant de son côté, ne croyez pas que je me mette en dépense pour vous donner ce divertissement. Je le trouve chez moi, et vous voyez que ce sont mon esclave, et ma cuisinière et dépensière en même temps, qui me le donnent. J’espère que vous ne le trouverez pas désagréable. »
Cogia Houssain ne s’attendoit pas qu’Ali Baba dût ajouter ce divertissement au soupé qu’il lui donnoit. Cela lui fit craindre de ne pouvoir pas profiter de l’occasion qu’il croyoit avoir trouvée. Au cas que cela arrivât, il se consola par l’espérance de la retrouver en continuant de ménager l’amitié du père et du fils. Ainsi, quoiqu’il eût mieux aimé qu’Ali Baba eût bien voulu ne le lui pas donner, il fit semblant néanmoins de lui en avoir obligation, et il eut la complaisance de lui témoigner que ce qui lui faisoit plaisir ne pourroit pas manquer de lui en faire aussi.
Quand Abdalla vit qu’Ali Baba et Cogia Houssain avoient cessé de parler, il recommença à toucher son tambour de basque et l’accompagna de sa voix sur un air à danser; et Morgiane qui ne le cédoit à aucune danseuse de profession, dansa d’une manière à se faire admirer, même de toute autre compagnie que celle à laquelle elle donnoit ce spectacle, dont il n’y avoit peut-être que le faux Cogia Houssain qui y donnât peu d’attention.
Après avoir dansé plusieurs danses avec le même agrément et de la même force, elle tira enfin le poignard; et en le tenant à la main elle en dansa une dans laquelle elle se surpassa par les figures différentes, par les mouvemens légers, par les sauts surprenans, et par les efforts merveilleux dont elle les accompagna, tantôt en présentant le poignard en avant, comme pour frapper, tantôt en faisant semblant de s’en frapper elle-même dans le sein.
Comme hors d’haleine enfin, elle arracha le tambour de basque des mains d’Abdalla, de la main gauche, et en tenant le poignard de la droite, elle alla présenter le tambour de basque par le creux à Ali Baba, à l’imitation des danseurs et danseuses de profession, qui en usent ainsi pour solliciter la libéralité de leurs spectateurs.
Ali Baba jeta une pièce d’or dans le tambour de basque de Morgiane. Morgiane s’adressa ensuite au fils d’Ali Baba, qui suivit l’exemple de son père. Cogia Houssain qui vit qu’elle alloit venir aussi à lui, avoit déjà tiré la bourse de son sein pour lui faire son présent, et il y mettoit la main, dans le moment que Morgiane, avec un courage digne de la fermeté et de la résolution qu’elle avoit montrées jusqu’alors, lui enfonça le poignard au milieu du cœur, si avant qu’elle ne le retira qu’après lui avoir ôté la vie.
Ali Baba et son fils épouvantés de cette action, poussèrent un grand cri: « Ah, malheureuse, s’écria Ali Baba, qu’as-tu fait? Est-ce pour nous perdre, moi et ma famille? »
« Ce n’est pas vous perdre, répondit Morgiane: je l’ai fait pour votre conservation. »
Alors en ouvrant la robe de Cogia Houssain, et en montrant à Ali Baba le poignard dont il étoit armé: « Voyez, dit-elle, à quel fier ennemi vous aviez affaire, et regardez-le bien au visage: vous y reconnoîtrez le faux marchand d’huile, et le capitaine des quarante voleurs! Ne considérez-vous pas aussi qu’il n’a pas voulu manger de sel avec vous? En voulez-vous davantage pour vous persuader de son dessein pernicieux? Avant que je l’eusse vu, le soupçon m’en étoit venu, du moment que vous m’avez fait connoître que vous aviez un tel convive. Je l’ai vu, et vous voyez que mon soupçon n’étoit pas mal fondé. »
Ali Baba qui connut la nouvelle obligation qu’il avoit à Morgiane de lui avoir conservé la vie une seconde fois, l’embrassa.
Musean translation
Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from Antoine Galland’s French text of “Histoire d’Ali Baba, et de quarante voleurs exterminés par une esclave” (Les Mille et une nuits, Le Normant edition of 1806, volume VI), paragraph for paragraph, and checked against the French before publication.
When Morgiana had finished serving, or having Abdalla serve, she used the time while they were at supper to make the preparations needed for carrying out one of the boldest of strokes. She had just finished when Abdalla came to tell her it was time to serve the fruit. She brought in the fruit, and as soon as Abdalla had cleared the table, she served it. Then she set a small table beside Ali Baba, placed the wine on it with three cups, and going out she took Abdalla with her, as if the two of them were going to have their supper together, and to leave Ali Baba free, as was the custom, to talk and make pleasant merry with his guest and see that he drank well.
Then the false Cogia Hussain, or rather the captain of the forty robbers, believed that the right moment to take Ali Baba's life had come.
"I will get the father and the son drunk," he said to himself. "The son, whose life I am quite willing to spare, will not stop me from plunging my dagger into the father's heart, and I will escape through the garden as I did before, while the cook and the slave have not yet finished their supper or have fallen asleep in the kitchen."
Instead of eating her supper, Morgiana, who had seen through the false Cogia Hussain's intention, gave him no time to carry out his wickedness. She dressed in a very fine dancer's costume, put on a headdress to match, and girded herself with a belt of gilded silver, to which she fastened a dagger whose sheath and hilt were of the same metal; and with all this she put a very beautiful mask over her face. When she had disguised herself in this way, she said to Abdalla:
"Abdalla, take your tambourine, and let us go and give our master's guest, his son's friend, the entertainment we sometimes give him."
Abdalla took the tambourine. He began to play it as he walked ahead of Morgiana, and he went into the hall. Morgiana, coming in after him, made a deep curtsy, deliberately, in a way that drew every eye, as if asking leave to show what she could do.
When Abdalla saw that Ali Baba wished to speak, he stopped playing the tambourine.
"Come in, Morgiana, come in," said Ali Baba. "Cogia Hussain will judge what you can do, and he will tell us what he thinks of it. Now, sir," he said to Cogia Hussain, turning toward him, "don't think I am going to any expense to give you this entertainment. I find it at home, and you see it is my slave, and my cook and housekeeper as well, who provide it. I hope you will not find it unpleasant."
Cogia Hussain had not expected Ali Baba to add this entertainment to the supper he was giving him. It made him fear he might not be able to seize the opportunity he thought he had found. If that happened, he consoled himself with the hope of finding it again by continuing to cultivate the friendship of father and son. So although he would rather Ali Baba had chosen not to give it, he pretended nonetheless to be obliged to him for it, and he was obliging enough to assure him that whatever gave him pleasure could not fail to please him too.
When Abdalla saw that Ali Baba and Cogia Hussain had stopped talking, he began to play his tambourine again and sang along to a dance tune. And Morgiana, who yielded nothing to any professional dancer, danced in a way that would have won admiration from any company at all, not only the one she was performing for, in which perhaps only the false Cogia Hussain paid it little attention.
After dancing several dances with the same grace and the same vigor, she at last drew the dagger, and holding it in her hand, she danced one in which she outdid herself in the variety of her figures, the lightness of her movements, the astonishing leaps, and the marvelous feats that went with them, now thrusting the dagger forward as if to strike, now pretending to strike it into her own breast.
At last, as if out of breath, she snatched the tambourine from Abdalla's hands with her left hand, and holding the dagger in her right, she went and held out the tambourine, hollow side up, to Ali Baba, in imitation of professional dancers, men and women, who do so to invite the generosity of their audience.
Ali Baba tossed a gold piece into Morgiana's tambourine. Morgiana then turned to Ali Baba's son, who followed his father's example. Cogia Hussain, seeing that she was coming to him too, had already drawn his purse from his breast to make her his present, and was putting his hand into it, at the very moment when Morgiana, with a courage worthy of the firmness and resolve she had shown until then, plunged the dagger into the middle of his heart, so deep that she did not draw it out until she had taken his life.
Ali Baba and his son, horrified at this deed, gave a great cry. "Ah, wretched girl," cried Ali Baba, "what have you done? Is it to ruin me and my family?"
"It is not to ruin you," Morgiana answered. "I did it to save you."
Then, opening Cogia Hussain's robe and showing Ali Baba the dagger he was armed with, she said, "See what a bitter enemy you were dealing with, and look him well in the face. You will recognize the false oil merchant and the captain of the forty robbers! And do you not also see that he would not eat salt with you? Do you need more to convince you of his deadly design? Before I had seen him, the suspicion came to me from the moment you told me you had such a guest. I saw him, and you see that my suspicion was not ill founded."
Ali Baba, knowing the new debt he owed Morgiana for saving his life a second time, embraced her.
Plain English translation
Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from the same French text of Galland’s 1806 Le Normant edition, paragraph for paragraph.
When Morgiana had finished serving, or having Abdalla serve, she used the time while they were eating to get ready for something extremely daring. She had just finished getting ready when Abdalla came to tell her it was time to bring the fruit. She took the fruit in. As soon as Abdalla had cleared the table, she served it. Then she put a small table next to Ali Baba, with wine and three cups on it. When she left, she took Abdalla with her, as if they were going to eat dinner together. As was the custom, this left Ali Baba free to talk and have a good time with his guest, and to make sure he had plenty to drink.
Then the fake Cogia Hussain, who was really the leader of the forty robbers, thought the right moment to kill Ali Baba had come.
"I'll get the father and the son drunk," he thought. "I don't mind letting the son live. He won't be able to stop me from stabbing the father in the heart with my dagger. Then I'll escape through the garden like I did before. The cook and the slave won't have finished their dinner yet, or they'll have fallen asleep in the kitchen."
But Morgiana didn't eat dinner. She had figured out what the fake Cogia Hussain meant to do, and she didn't give him time to carry out his evil plan. She put on a very pretty dancer's outfit and a headdress to go with it. She tied on a belt made of silver covered in gold. She hung a dagger on it. The dagger's sheath and handle were made of the same metal. She also put a very beautiful mask over her face. Once she was dressed up like this, she said to Abdalla:
"Abdalla, get your tambourine. Let's go put on the show we sometimes do for guests. We'll do it for our master's guest, who is also his son's friend."
Abdalla picked up the tambourine. He started playing it as he walked in front of Morgiana, and he went into the room. Morgiana came in after him and gave a deep bow. She did it confidently, so everyone would look at her, as if she were asking permission to show them what she could do.
Abdalla saw that Ali Baba wanted to say something, so he stopped playing the tambourine.
"Come in, Morgiana, come in," Ali Baba said. "Cogia Hussain will see what you can do, and he'll tell us what he thinks." Then he turned to Cogia Hussain. "Sir," he said, "please don't think I've spent a lot of money to put on this show for you. It's all from my own house. As you can see, it's my slave and my cook, who also runs my household, who are doing it. I hope you'll enjoy it."
Cogia Hussain hadn't expected Ali Baba to add a show to the dinner. It made him worry that he might not be able to use the chance he thought he had found. If that happened, he told himself he could still find another chance, as long as he stayed friends with the father and son. So even though he would have preferred that Ali Baba hadn't done it, he acted as if he were grateful. He was polite enough to tell Ali Baba that anything that pleased Ali Baba was sure to please him too.
When Abdalla saw that Ali Baba and Cogia Hussain had stopped talking, he started playing the tambourine again. He sang along with a dance song. Morgiana was as good as any professional dancer. She danced so well that any audience at all would have admired it, not just the people she was dancing for. Probably the only one who didn't pay much attention was the fake Cogia Hussain.
She danced several dances, each one just as graceful and full of energy. Then at last she pulled out the dagger. Holding it in her hand, she did a dance that was better than all the rest. She did many different steps and moved lightly. She made amazing jumps and did wonderful, difficult moves. Sometimes she pushed the dagger forward as if she were going to stab someone. Sometimes she pretended to stab herself in the chest.
Finally, acting as if she were out of breath, she grabbed the tambourine out of Abdalla's hands with her left hand. She held the dagger in her right. She went and held the tambourine out to Ali Baba, open side up, the way professional dancers do when they ask their audience for money.
Ali Baba threw a gold coin into Morgiana's tambourine. Next Morgiana went to Ali Baba's son, and he did the same as his father. Cogia Hussain saw that she was going to come to him too. He had already pulled his purse out from inside his robe to give her something. Just as he put his hand into it, Morgiana stabbed him right in the heart. It took great courage, as much as all the determination and nerve she had shown so far. She pushed the dagger in so deep that she didn't pull it out until he was dead.
Ali Baba and his son were horrified at what she had done, and they cried out. "What a terrible thing!" Ali Baba shouted. "What have you done? Do you want to destroy me and my family?"
"I haven't destroyed you," Morgiana answered. "I did it to save you."
Then she opened Cogia Hussain's robe and showed Ali Baba the dagger the man had been carrying. "Look," she said. "Look what a dangerous enemy you were dealing with. Take a good look at his face. You'll see he's the fake oil seller, the leader of the forty robbers! And didn't you notice he wouldn't eat salt with you? What more do you need to be sure he meant to do something terrible? I suspected it even before I saw him, as soon as you told me you had a guest like that. Then I saw him, and you can see I was right to be suspicious."
Ali Baba realized he now owed Morgiana even more. She had saved his life a second time. He hugged her.