A man in Cairo dreams that a voice orders him to go to Isfahan in Persia, where a treasure awaits him. He undertakes the long and difficult voyage and finally reaches Isfahan. Exhausted, he stretches out in the patio of a mosque to rest. Without knowing it, he is among thieves. They are all arrested, and the cadi asks him why he has come to the city. The Egyptian tells him. The cadi laughs until he shows the back of his teeth and says to him: Foolish and gullible man, three times have I dreamed of a house in Cairo, behind which is a garden, and in the garden a sundial, and then a fountain and a fig tree, beneath the fountain there is a treasure. I have never given the least credit to this lie. Never return to Isfahan. Take this money and go. The man returns to Cairo. He has recognized his own house in the cadis dream. He digs beneath the fountain and finds the treasure Jorge Luis Borges (recounting a tale from The Thousand and One nights) Seven Nights
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 17:07:26 +0000