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Em todo caso, as evidências a favor de Burton são fortes e pouco
questionáveis, e será utilizando as suas versões do texto árabe que se
procederá a análise das duas traduções das Noites aparecidas
inicialmente em Crítica.
3.1.3.1 O castelo
A primeira das traduções, “La cámara de las estatuas”, remete ao
seguinte pré-texto:
[…]
Now when it was the Two Hundred and
Seventy-first Night,
The City of Labtayt.
There was once a royal-city in the land of Roum,
called the City of Labtayt wherein stood a tower
which was always shut. And whenever a King
died and another King of the Greeks took the
Kingship after him, he set on the tower a new and
strong lock, till there were four-and-twenty locks
upon the gate, according to the number of the
Kings. After this time, there came to the throne a
man who was not of the old royal-house, and he
had a mind to open these locks, that he might see
what was within the tower. The grandees of his
kingdom forbade him this and pressed him to
desist and reproved him and blamed him; but he
persisted saying, “Needs must this place be
opened.” Then they offered him all that their
hands possessed of monies and treasures and
things of price, if he would but refrain; still he
would not be baulked,—And Shahrazad perceived
the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted
say.