A Land Which Itself Is Perfume
Nights 17-34
This week, for a long section, I’ve got notes on the structure, poetry, sex, and Magic cards in the Nights.
The Nights begin with longer nights on average; this is the longest section of all, at nearly 150 pages this week (most of the rest are closer to 44 pages per week). I’ve covered nearly 10% of the pages, but just 3.4% of the nights.
I’m still getting surprises about the structure of the Nights. Some of the stories have similar plot elements from one to the next (e.g., we get two stories in a row where characters have their hands cut off). We get a very modern-seeming character who keeps talking and won’t let the plot advance (this reminds me of some comic episodes in Don Quixote) (night 29, pp. 208-209).
Many of the dramatic moments use poetry. I’ve heard that Arabic poetry is beautiful. It’s why so many Muslims like to recite or hear recitations of the Koran. I’m sorry to report, the poetry doesn’t translate well (almost certainly due to difficulties in translation rather than quality of the original). I have to force myself to slow down when I get to it. It’s almost always unremarkable. I can understand it, which is good, but I don’t find it inspiring. I think the biggest exception is an image in an ode to Cairo (night 28, p. 199), “a land which is itself perfume.” I found this section evocative, even if a bit cliched.
The Nights continue to surprise on subject matter, most specifically sex. The translator must have had fun translating this euphemistic sentence where two young lovers finally consummate their love: “He then set the charge, fired the cannon, and demolished the fortress”. (p. 149, Night 22). Sex doesn’t just show up often, it also comes in unexpected contexts. Not much later, I was surprised to see the word “pervert” appear: “I wronged the boy by shutting up my shop and following him, making him think that I was a pervert.” (night 23, p. 159).
Most surprising about sex is that it is not all told from the male perspective. The beauty of men is described quite often (e.g., pp. 115-116, Night 18), “His eyebrows were like an archer’s bow . . . His face is like a crescent moon.” These kinds of similes, which remind me of how the Bible’s Song of Songs compares parts of the body, are common. They are more commonly used to describe the women, but not exclusively.
My last point, on which Magic cards have appeared. Not many! Shahrazad is still here, and some common nouns like deserts and the like. Most specifically, we have the Pyramids on page 131 (night 20), but they are part of the background, not a driver of the plot. If the rest of the Nights are like these, I’ll say that the Magic set feels more like what readers imagine the Arabian Nights are like (high fantasy) and less what they are actually like (so far, stories of lovers and the vicissitudes of fortune). I’ll keep track of this throughout the rest of the blog.