Where the caravan camels roam Where they cut off your ear If they don't like your face

Peace be upon you,

I just started reading One Thousand and one nights. Iv got to say i expected magic and mystery and a sense of nostalgia but but this is beyond anything I ever expected. The sheer mystical aura of the stories just sucks you in. For the past three nights iv been reading this book nonstop. Some nights Iv been reading well past midnight unable to put the book down. Finally on the forth night I decided to take a break sick, not of the stories, but of the headaches i get in to more from the lack of sleep. This is a must read, not because of the magical mysterious medieval Arab world because the stories are from many different places not just the Arabian peninsula. But because the stories really do represent ... Ummm i dunno how exactly to describe it, but... i feel like they are a window into humanity... I honestly believe they are an essential piece of world culture... A story of human existence.

The translation Im reading is by Husain Haddawy. I think that a Native Arab translator can pick up on the nuances of the meaning much better then a translator who learned Arabic as a second language.

Also a throw back to one of the greatest films of all times...

=)

Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

When the wind's from the east
And the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down
Stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Arabian night

Arabian nights
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways

Arabian nights
'Neath Arabian moons
A fool off his guard
Could fall and fall hard
Out there on the dunes

~ Peace till next time...MoCo