Scheherazade Speaks

For nearly thirty-three months, I told an unfinished tale

To the king who had promised to kill his wife each night

So that she could never be unfaithful, then marry again

The next night. I who had spent my youth in the library

Of my father’s home, knew many tales, a thousand

And one in all. I secretly vowed to bend him to my will.

Painting by Ferdinand Keller, 1880.