Antoine Galland, from the telling of Hannā Diyāb · Complete work
Ali Baba Brings His Brother Home
Ali Baba Brings His Brother Home of 14. Read it here for reference, or continue through the entire work without leaving the reader.
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La femme de Cassim cependant fut dans une grande inquiétude quand elle vit qu’il étoit nuit close et que son mari n’étoit pas revenu. Elle alla chez Ali Baba tout alarmée, et elle dit: « Beau-frère, vous n’ignorez pas, comme je le crois, que Cassim votre frère est allé à la forêt, et pour quel sujet. Il n’est pas encore revenu, et voilà la nuit avancée; je crains que quelque malheur ne lui soit arrivé. »
Ali Baba s’étoit douté de ce voyage de son frère, après le discours qu’il lui avoit tenu; et ce fut pour cela qu’il s’étoit abstenu d’aller à la forêt ce jour là, afin de ne lui pas donner d’ombrage. Sans lui faire aucun reproche dont elle pût s’offenser, ni son mari, s’il eût été vivant, il lui dit qu’elle ne devoit pas encore s’alarmer, et que Cassim apparemment avoit jugé à propos de ne rentrer dans la ville que bien avant dans la nuit.
La femme de Cassim le crut ainsi, d’autant plus facilement, qu’elle considéra combien il étoit important que son mari fit la chose secrètement. Elle retourna chez elle, et elle attendit patiemment jusqu’à minuit. Mais après cela ses alarmes redoublèrent avec une douleur d’autant plus sensible, qu’elle ne pouvoit la faire éclater, ni la soulager par des cris dont elle vit bien que la cause devoit être cachée au voisinage. Alors, si sa faute étoit irréparable, elle se repentit de la folle curiosité qu’elle avoit eue, par une envie condamnable de pénétrer dans les affaires de son beau-frère et de sa belle-sœur. Elle passa la nuit dans les pleurs; et dès la pointe du jour elle courut chez eux, et elle leur annonça le sujet qui l’amenoit, plutôt par ses larmes que par ses paroles.
Ali Baba n’attendit pas que sa belle-sœur le priât de se donner la peine d’aller voir ce que Cassim étoit devenu. Il partit sur-le-champ avec ses trois ânes, après lui avoir recommandé de modérer son affliction, et il alla à la forêt. En approchant du rocher, après n’avoir vu dans le chemin ni son frère, ni les dix mulets, il fut étonné du sang répandu qu’il aperçut près de la porte, et il en prit un mauvais augure. Il se présenta devant la porte, il prononça les paroles, elle s’ouvrit; et il fut frappé du triste spectacle du corps de son frère mis en quatre quartiers. Il n’hésita pas sur le parti qu’il devoit prendre, pour rendre les derniers devoirs à son frère, en oubliant le peu d’amitié fraternelle qu’il avoit eue pour lui. Il trouva dans la grotte de quoi faire deux paquets des quatre quartiers, dont il fit la charge d’un de ses ânes, avec du bois pour les cacher. Il chargea les deux autres ânes de sacs pleins d’or et de bois par-dessus, comme la première fois, sans perdre de temps; et dès qu’il eut achevé, et qu’il eut commandé à la porte de se refermer, il reprit le chemin de la ville; mais il eut la précaution de s’arrêter à la sortie de la forêt, assez de temps pour n’y rentrer que de nuit. En arrivant, il ne fit entrer chez lui que les deux ânes chargés d’or; et après avoir laissé à sa femme le soin de les décharger, et lui avoir fait part en peu de mots de ce qui étoit arrivé à Cassim, il conduisit l’autre âne chez sa belle-sœur.
Ali Baba frappa à la porte, qui lui fut ouverte par Morgiane: cette Morgiane étoit une esclave adroite, entendue, et féconde en inventions pour faire réussir les choses les plus difficiles; et Ali Baba la connoissoit pour telle. Quand il fut entré dans la cour, il déchargea l’âne du bois et des deux paquets; et en prenant Morgiane à part: « Morgiane, dit-il, la première chose que je te demande, c’est un secret inviolable: tu vas voir combien il nous est nécessaire autant à ta maîtresse qu’à moi. Voilà le corps de ton maître dans ces deux paquets, il s’agit de le faire enterrer comme s’il étoit mort de sa mort naturelle. Fais-moi parler à ta maîtresse, et sois attentive à ce que je lui dirai. »
Morgiane avertit sa maîtresse, et Ali Baba qui la suivoit, entra.
« Hé bien, beau-frère, demanda la belle-sœur à Ali Baba avec grande impatience, quelle nouvelle apportez-vous de mon mari? Je n’aperçois rien sur votre visage qui doive me consoler. »
« Belle-sœur, répondit Ali Baba, je ne puis vous rien dire, qu’auparavant vous ne me promettiez de m’écouter depuis le commencement jusqu’à la fin sans ouvrir la bouche. Il ne vous est pas moins important qu’à moi, dans ce qui est arrivé, de garder un grand secret pour votre bien, et pour votre repos. »
« Ah, s’écria la belle-sœur sans élever la voix, ce préambule me fait connoître que mon mari n’est plus; mais en même temps je connois la nécessité du secret que vous me demandez. Il faut bien que je me fasse violence: dites, je vous écoute. »
Ali Baba raconta à sa belle-sœur, tout le succès de son voyage jusqu’à son arrivée avec le corps de Cassim.
« Belle-sœur, ajouta-t-il, voilà un sujet d’affliction pour vous d’autant plus grand que vous vous y attendiez moins. Quoique le mal soit sans remède, si quelque chose néanmoins est capable de vous consoler, je vous offre de joindre le peu de bien que Dieu m’a envoyé au vôtre, en vous épousant, et en vous assurant que ma femme n’en sera pas jalouse, et que vous vivrez bien ensemble. Si la proposition vous agrée, il faut songer à faire en sorte qu’il paroisse que mon frère est mort de sa mort naturelle; et c’est un soin dont il me semble que vous pouvez vous reposer sur Morgiane, et j’y contribuerai de mon côté de tout ce qui sera en mon pouvoir. »
Quel meilleur parti pouvoit prendre la veuve de Cassim, que celui qu’Ali Baba lui proposoit, elle qui, avec les biens qui lui demeuroient par la mort de son premier mari, en trouvoit un autre plus riche qu’elle; et qui, par la découverte du trésor qu’il avoit faite, pouvoit le devenir davantage? Elle ne refusa pas le parti, elle le regarda au contraire comme un motif raisonnable de consolation. En essuyant ses larmes qu’elle avoit commencé de verser en abondance, en supprimant les cris perçans ordinaires aux femmes qui ont perdu leurs maris, elle témoigna suffisamment à Ali Baba qu’elle acceptoit son offre.
Ali Baba laissa la veuve de Cassim dans cette disposition; et après avoir recommandé à Morgiane de bien s’acquitter de son personnage, il retourna chez lui avec son âne.
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.
Meanwhile Cassim's wife grew very uneasy when she saw that night had fallen and her husband had not come back. She went to Ali Baba's house in great alarm and said, "Brother-in-law, I believe you know that your brother Cassim has gone to the forest, and why. He has not come back yet, and the night is far gone. I am afraid some misfortune has happened to him."
Ali Baba had suspected his brother would make this journey after the way he had spoken, and that was why he had kept away from the forest that day, so as to give him no cause for suspicion. Without any reproach that might offend her, or her husband had he been alive, he told her she should not be alarmed yet, and that Cassim had very likely thought it wise not to come back into the city until late in the night.
Cassim's wife believed this all the more readily because she knew how important it was for her husband to act in secret. She went home and waited patiently until midnight. But after that her fears redoubled, and her grief was all the sharper because she could neither let it burst out nor ease it by crying aloud, since she saw clearly that its cause had to be kept from the neighbors. Then, though her fault could not be mended, she repented of the foolish curiosity that a shameful envy had given her to pry into the affairs of her brother-in-law and sister-in-law. She spent the night weeping, and at daybreak she ran to their house and told them why she had come, more by her tears than by her words.
Ali Baba did not wait for his sister-in-law to beg him to take the trouble of finding out what had become of Cassim. He left at once with his three donkeys, after urging her to temper her grief, and went to the forest. As he neared the rock, having seen neither his brother nor the ten mules along the way, he was startled by blood spilled near the door, and he took it for a bad omen. He stood before the door and spoke the words; it opened, and he was struck by the grim sight of his brother's body cut into four quarters. He did not hesitate over what he must do to pay his brother the last rites, forgetting how little brotherly love Cassim had shown him. In the cave he found the means to make two bundles of the four quarters, and he loaded them on one of his donkeys, with wood to hide them. He loaded the two other donkeys with sacks full of gold, with wood on top as before, losing no time. As soon as he had finished and had commanded the door to close, he took the road back to the city, but he was careful to wait at the edge of the forest long enough that he would not enter the city until after dark. When he arrived, he brought only the two gold-laden donkeys into his own house. He left his wife to unload them, told her in a few words what had happened to Cassim, and led the other donkey to his sister-in-law's house.
Ali Baba knocked at the door, and it was opened by Morgiana. This Morgiana was a slave, clever, shrewd, and rich in schemes for bringing the hardest things to a good end, and Ali Baba knew her to be so. When he had come into the courtyard, he unloaded the wood and the two bundles from the donkey, and taking Morgiana aside he said, "Morgiana, the first thing I ask of you is absolute secrecy. You will see how necessary it is, for your mistress as much as for me. Here in these two bundles is your master's body. We must have him buried as if he had died a natural death. Let me speak to your mistress, and listen closely to what I tell her."
Morgiana told her mistress, and Ali Baba, who was following her, came in.
"Well, brother-in-law," his sister-in-law asked Ali Baba in great impatience, "what news do you bring of my husband? I see nothing in your face that should comfort me."
"Sister," Ali Baba answered, "I can tell you nothing until you first promise to listen to me from beginning to end without opening your mouth. After what has happened, keeping a close secret matters to you no less than to me, for your own good and your own peace."
"Ah," cried the sister-in-law without raising her voice, "this preamble tells me that my husband is no more. But I see too why you ask for secrecy. I must force myself to bear it. Speak; I am listening."
Ali Baba told his sister-in-law all that had come of his journey, up to his arrival with Cassim's body.
"Sister," he added, "this is a cause of grief for you, all the greater because you expected it so little. Though the harm is past remedy, if anything can console you, I offer to join the little wealth God has sent me to yours by marrying you, and I assure you that my wife will not be jealous and that you will live well together. If the proposal pleases you, we must see to it that my brother appears to have died a natural death. That is a task, it seems to me, you may leave to Morgiana, and for my part I will help in every way I can."
What better course could Cassim's widow take than the one Ali Baba proposed? With the wealth left to her by the death of her first husband, she was finding another who was richer than she, and who, through the treasure he had discovered, might become richer still. She did not refuse the match; on the contrary, she regarded it as a reasonable ground for consolation. Wiping away the tears she had begun to shed in floods, and holding back the piercing cries customary among women who have lost their husbands, she showed Ali Baba plainly enough that she accepted his offer.
Ali Baba left Cassim's widow in this frame of mind, and after urging Morgiana to play her part well, he went home with his donkey.
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.
It got dark, and Cassim still hadn't come home. His wife became very worried. She hurried to Ali Baba's house in a panic. "Brother-in-law," she said, "I think you know that your brother Cassim went to the forest, and why he went. He isn't back yet, and it's late at night. I'm afraid something bad has happened to him."
After what Cassim had said to him, Ali Baba had guessed his brother would make the trip. That was why he had stayed away from the forest that day. He didn't want Cassim to think he was up to something. He didn't blame her for anything, so as not to upset her. He wouldn't have blamed Cassim either, if Cassim had been alive. He told her not to worry yet. Cassim had probably decided it was better to come back into town late at night.
Cassim's wife believed him. It was easy to believe, since she knew how important it was for her husband to do this in secret. She went home and waited patiently until midnight. After that she became twice as frightened. Her pain was even worse because she couldn't let it out. She couldn't cry out loud, because she knew the neighbors must not find out why. Her mistake could not be undone, but she was sorry now for being so nosy. It was a shameful kind of envy that had made her poke into her brother-in-law's and sister-in-law's business. She cried all night. At the first light of day she ran to their house. She let them know why she had come, more with her tears than with her words.
Ali Baba didn't wait for his sister-in-law to ask him to go and find out what had happened to Cassim. He told her to try to stay calm. Then he left right away with his three donkeys and went to the forest. On the way he saw no sign of his brother or of the ten mules. When he got near the rock, he saw blood spilled near the door. That frightened him and seemed like a bad sign. He stood in front of the door and said the words. It opened. There in front of him was his brother's body, cut into four pieces. It was a terrible sight. Cassim had never been very brotherly to him, but Ali Baba put that out of his mind. He knew right away what he had to do to give his brother a proper burial. He found things in the cave to wrap the four pieces into two bundles. He loaded them onto one of his donkeys and hid them under some wood. He wasted no time. He loaded the other two donkeys with sacks full of gold and put wood on top, the same as the first time. As soon as he was done, he told the door to close and headed back to town. But he was careful. He stopped at the edge of the forest and waited there long enough so he wouldn't get to town until after dark. When he got there, he took only the two donkeys carrying gold into his own house. He left it to his wife to unload them and told her in a few words what had happened to Cassim. Then he led the third donkey to his sister-in-law's house.
Ali Baba knocked, and Morgiana opened the door. Morgiana was a slave in the house. She was smart and quick, and she was full of ideas for making even the hardest plans work. Ali Baba knew this about her. When he was inside the yard, he took the wood and the two bundles off the donkey. He took Morgiana to one side. "Morgiana," he said, "the first thing I need from you is to keep a secret, no matter what. You'll see how important it is, both for your mistress and for me. Your master's body is in these two bundles. We have to get him buried as if he died a normal death. Take me to your mistress, and listen carefully to what I tell her."
Morgiana told her mistress, and Ali Baba came in behind her.
"Well, brother-in-law?" his sister-in-law asked. She couldn't wait. "What news do you have about my husband? I don't see anything in your face that makes me feel any better."
"Sister-in-law," Ali Baba answered, "I can't tell you anything until you promise to listen to the whole story, start to finish, without saying a word. After what has happened, it's just as important for you as it is for me to keep this a close secret. It's for your own good and your own peace of mind."
"Oh," she cried, keeping her voice down, "the way you're starting tells me my husband is dead. But I also understand why you need me to keep it secret. I'll have to force myself. Go on. I'm listening."
Ali Baba told her everything that had happened on his trip, up to the moment he arrived with Cassim's body.
"Sister-in-law," he went on, "this is terrible for you, and all the more because you didn't see it coming. Nothing can fix what has happened. But if anything can comfort you, here is my offer. God has given me a little wealth. I'll put it together with yours by marrying you. I promise you my wife won't be jealous, and the two of you will get along well. If you agree, we have to make it look as if my brother died a natural death. I think you can leave that to Morgiana. And I'll do everything I can to help."
What better choice did Cassim's widow have than the one Ali Baba was offering? She still had the money her first husband had left her. Now she was getting a second husband who was richer than she was. And with the treasure he had found, he might become even richer. She didn't turn the offer down. In fact, she saw it as a sensible reason to take comfort. She had started to cry very hard, but she wiped away her tears. She held back the loud, piercing cries that women usually make when they lose their husbands. That showed Ali Baba clearly enough that she accepted.
Ali Baba left Cassim's widow feeling this way. He told Morgiana to be sure to play her part well. Then he went home with his donkey.