THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Or The Twenty-Four Nights of Lorenzo and Poletto by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006 written the 17th of June, 1991 translated by the author English text kindly revised by John
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"THE MERCHANT OF VENICE" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
CHAPTER 20 SIXTEENTH NIGHT The odd Chinese customs and their difficult language
After making the servants take away the tub, Poletto closed the room door, pulled off his breeches and, naked, climbed on the bed at Lorenzo's side.
"Master... even though we made love while bathing, after you tell me the story, we will do it again, won't we?"
"Are you never content?"
"Well... if the master doesn't feel like it, of course I'll content myself... It would be all right with me."
"So, you are easily contented by yourself, then! What's up, you don't feel like making again love with me? Tonight, after the story, would you prefer to sleep?"
Poletto looked at him confused and puzzled, "But I... I..."
"All right, don't worry, I was just pulling your leg, Poletto. Surely we will make love again, afterwards. One of the things I really like about you is that you never change your mind when the question is about making love with me."
Poletto, reassured, smiled and curled up against his master's chest, lightly caressing it. Lorenzo returned his caresses.
After a while Poletto asked, "You told me about one of the things you like in me. And which other do you like?"
"I will tell you another time. There are too many to tell you now. Now we have to proceed with my stories, am I right?"
"Sure, dear master. So, then?"
"I was twenty-eight and for my nature I had stopped perhaps too long in the same place. Therefore, after having sold the items most difficult to transport, and also sold my shop, I said good bye to Gilòn and Guiendai and left, going toward the East. I had with me only Prema and other three slaves that the king's treasurer gave me in gratitude for the treatment and healing of his son. I traveled for a long while, crossing rivers and mountains, 'domains and countries, doing very good business, until I reached the great Chinese Empire, that is also called the Celestial Empire.
I almost felt like an emulator of Marco the Venitian, who went as far as the court of the Great Khan some generations ago. As one of the slaves I had with me was a young Chinese, I didn't have language problems. You have to know that Chinese speak a language made of very short words, like single syllables, and they sing them so that, according to how you sing a word, its meaning changes. It is a very beautiful and agreeable language to be heard, but very difficult to speak, or I should say, to be sung.
When I reached China, then, I decided to stop there for a long time. That land is really wide and fascinating. Many wise men live there, who are very honoured, who one can recognize by their clothes, somewhat similar to those of our priests, and for their funny beards made of hairs, sparse but long to their belts, and also for their very very long fingernails, which are a sign of their wisdom. In fact according to the Chinese, a wise man should never apply himself to any manual work, therefore their nails can grow without breaking.
In that land there are also several monasteries of the followers of the Buddha, an ancient Indian wise man who didn't have good luck in his land, but had many followers in the far East. In these monasteries there are several novices and each monk teaches his novice with a really delightful method. He teaches him to sing their ancient texts several times every day, so that the novice can learn them by heart; if the novice learns them correctly, the monk takes his novice into his cell, makes him undress and fucks him vigorously, night after night, to fix well the sacred texts in their heads. You have also to know, my boy, that having been a disciple of a famous master, and therefore fucked by him, also makes the pupil famous and honored. But what is interesting about this method is that they don't have sexual intercourse for the sake of pleasure, in fact their religion forbids the pursuit of pleasure. They do so only for the love of teaching."
Poletto at this point eclaimed, "And just think that here in our land, if a master fucked one of his students, he would risk to be put to death by the Holy Inquisition or by the Bargello! Chinese are really a very civilized people, is it not so, master?"
"Yes, Poletto, I totally agree with you. So, you can well understand that in this strange land that lies at the borders of creation, I had many agreable adventures. The one that I want to tell you this night, happened after I was in China for several months. I was starting to speak Chinese rather passably even though, as I am somewhat tone-deaf, at times I thought I was saying one thing and instead I said another. As that time for instance I wanted to say "greetings to your kind mother" and instead I pronounced it "riding your courtly horse". That's why I never parted from my slave Tung'giao. Well, another reason why I always had him with me, is that I grew fond of him, as in bed he was really skilled and agreeable, even more than my Prema."
"So, then, he was also better than me, master?"
"Well, not really, Poletto. You are learning fast and are surpassing all my past boys. But above all, you are special to me, and you are not my slave."
"I would not at all complain if I were your slave!"
"So that I could sell you?"
"Would you sell me, master?"
"Not even for all the treasures of the Pope and of the Sultan put together! Not even if I was starving! But let now proceed with my story.
Tung'giao, besides being very skilled at giving me pleasure, was also skilled in understanding others, he was therefore a very good salesman. Moreover, he was also able to understand if a man was a lover of men or not, thus he often signalled to me if I could dare to make somebody understand I liked him. So, when I took a fancy to somebody, I asked Tung'giao "how is?" and if he ansewred "he's!" I understood I could try, while if answered "no no" I kept quiet. I have to say that he was never wrong.
One morning, a palanquin stopped in front of my shop and out of it came a mandarin, a young man who could at most be twenty-five. While he was looking with curiosity at my goods, I looked him over with growing interest and felt a strong attraction. The clothes he was wearing didn't let me guess his physique, but his face and his hands were really beautiful!
So, at a certain point I asked my Chinese slave, "Tell me, Tung'giao, how is."
He knit his brows, shook his head and said, "I don't know; he's... or... no no"
It was the first time he gave me such an answer, therefore I looked at him in surprise and getting somewhat impatient I asked again, "Well, then, he's or not?"
The boy, even more confused, repeated, "Possibly he's and possibly not, as I told you."
The noble young man, who had overheard our odd exchange of cues, asked me, "Are you possibly waiting for somebody resembling me?"
He asked it with such a smile that I felt everything melting inside me, so much so that my desire increased. The mandarin, presuming that I,, being a stranger, I didn't understand him, repeated his question to my slave.
Tung'giao, trying to strike an attitude, answered in an humble tone, "Yes, very high lord, it is as you say."
"And who is your master awaiting with such longing? It should be a very important person, at least to him." Trying to use the best the Chinese I knew, I said, "I'm waiting for a red woodpecker, my lord."
Tung'giao immediately intervened, "My master intended to say that he is waiting for an important guest, very high lord!"
Now, you have to know, my dear Poletto, that changing the note of the words, guest and woodpecker could be mistaken, as well as red and important. But also that the expression "red woodpecker" in Chinese is an elegant way to call the clapper of a man. I was not aware of the equivocation, but the mandarin understood my mistake and laughed, amused.
Then he asked to my slave, "So, your master likes red woodpeckers too?"
At these words Tung'giao brightened and whispered to me, "He's, master. Yes, he's, he's!"
The mandarin was looking a little at my slave and a little at me. He was possibly asking himself who between the two of us was the mad one. Then, almost as if taking a sudden decision, he hurriedly left my shop, got into his palanquin and went away.
I then, feeling a little angry, said to Tung'gian, "Did you become an idiot all of a sudden? First you say he's, and no no, then no no, then he's! That man has a wonderful face and if he is, I want to make love with him. But now he has left and I have no idea about who he is or where does he lives, and it's all your fault. If I did my way I could possibly have had some hope, but now on the contrary..."
"Master, don't be angry with poor Tung'giao. This time, with this man, I was reading contrasting signs, that at times made me think he was a man lover, and soon after that he was not. My first master was a physiognomist monk who taught me many things, but not everything, as he died before accomplishing my education. But if you let me to go around in the city, I can possibly find your mandarin, discover his name and where he lives."
"Then hurry up and go! His face, his eyes, his smile have bewitched me."
Tung'giao ran out of the shop. When he finally came back, it was late afternoon. He succeeded in singling out the mandarin. He was a dignitary of the imperial court who was passing through the city on his way back to the capital. His name was Wang-Shu-Gen, a man of letters, and in spite of his young age he was one of the most loved and esteemd men by the emperor Ming. He was guest of the noble Giao-Lian and was staying for some time at his house.
Now, from what I knew, the noble Giao was a well known libertine, a women lover, but this didn't mean that Wang was like him too. Tung'giao also came to know that in Wang's retinue there were no women, but this also had no real meaning. In fact women remained at home almost always, very seldom did they accompany their husbands or lovers on a journey.
Then I decided to take in my hands all the question. If Wang was a famed man of letters, I possibly had the way to attract his attention. Amongst my merchandise I had in fact a case full of ancient manuscripts that I had bought in a monastery. I searched amongst them until I found the manuscript of a Chu song of Yan dinasty, a famous one titled 'Chinsu', that is 'Autumn Thoughts'. The song was well known, and the manuscript was an original, having the Yan seal on it, therefore was a rare item.
The text, more or less, said, "An old tree embraced by withered ivy, a black raven, a small bridge on a stream, some houses. On the ancient road the western wind is running, like a slender horse. Sun sets in the West; is, the traveler, dying for sadness."
I put the manuscript in a simple but elegant wooden case, gave it to Tung'giao ordering him to take it immediately to Wang as a gift. Tung'giao told me that a gift has to be accompanied by a message, as is the custom. So I asked a good calligrapher who had his shop not so far from mine, to write these words for me, "I'm coming from the west on this ancient road. Today I had a vision, a young traveler, but he now disappered. My heart feels at the sunset, lonely and extinguishing, orphan of such a vision. Remember me when you are in the capital when you hear this song. Knowing this makes me find solace."
Tung'giao left at full speed taking my gift and message. At evening he was back with a note that said, "A young tree embraced by fresh ivy, a red woodpecker, a nice bridge on the rushing stream, a quiet room. Beautiful is the horse running on the ancient road. The western wind enters my room and caresses me. After the sunset, the moon lights up my face, the night is sweet, I am no more sad."
I rejoiced - that was a clear invitation, the sign that he also was interested in me. On the following morning I took a jade flower I had amongst my merchandise, and sent it to Wang, accompanied by these words, "A jade flower cannot wither. In your hand it will be more beautiful than ever. Put on it your noble lips and it will shine of a joy lit because of such a homage. Brush it with your noble fingers and it will change its color because of the emotion. Or else, crush it and throw it away like useless dust. A horse is fretting in the stable, waiting for the noble man who will take his halter and guide him onto bright lawns were they can run together."
The noble Wang then sent me this message, "A jade flower without the stem! Your homage, even though beautiful and gentle, is not complete. Give me what is missing and I will put my fingers on it, I will brush it with my lips. Any noble man would love to guide an impatient stallion. In the afternon my empty palanquin will stop in front of the stable. Will it come back empty? Would the traveler feel disappointed?"
Now I was certain! You see, Poletto, in the language of the Chinese, the expression 'jade stem' is also a poetic expression to name the virile member. Therefore he was inviting me to give him my 'jade stem' to complete the flower gift. Moreover he was inviting me to go at his place, sending his palanquin for me.
I was so happy and moved that, even though half a day was missing for our date, I at once started to prepare myself. I choose my most beautiful clothes, prepared the most suave and delicate perfumes, took a long warm bath, then laid down to relax while my slaves gave me a reinvigorating massage. I wanted to be the most possible in good shape, and beautiful and desirable.
Then, choosing the most beautiful and precious of my small jars made of iridescent Persian glass, I filled it with the best of my anointments suited for a love meeting. I still didn't know if Wang liked best to penetrate or being penetrated, but it would be useful in any case. And last I thought about what I could bring him as a gift.
Chinese people don't adorn themselves with jewels as we or other peoples do. I wanted to give him something exotic that also in future would talk to him about me. Nothing amongst even my most precious items seemed to me suitable for him. Time was passing fast and I feared to see the palanquin stopping in front of the door of my shop at any moment. Finally I got an inspiration.
I looked for a very plain wooden box and put in it twelve qualities of indian incense made with flowers, each more rare and precious of the other, and I put in thirteen little cones of each quality, then also an incense burner made of pure rock crystal. I wrapped the box with a simple white ramie square, and applied to it a note reading, "Thirteen full moons in one year and twelve years in a cycle. When it will be again the horse year and you will burn the last of these incense cones, will you still remember the horse who came from the West?"
I had just finished preparing this gift when the palanquin came, a servant entered my shop and simply said, "From noble Wang!"
Then, leaving the business to Prema and Tung'giao, I went in the palanquin. The servant closed its curtain, the slaves hoisted it and went at a run. Sitting inside, I was feeling moved as if I was going to my first love date. I was peparing speeches inside my head, studied the sentences I had to say, tried to guess how our encounter would happen. Finally the palanquin entered a private garden, crossed it and stopped in front of a small pavillion on the shore of a small lake. The servant raised the courtain and invited me to follow him.
Inside, Wang was waiting for me with a smile. He gestured me to sit, the servant went out carefully closing the door and leaving us alone.
"You have a poetic heart, stranger. This pleases me."
"You excited poetry into my heart." I answered.
He smiled and said, "You came to give me your jade stem..."
"Surely, I brought it... for you."
"I would like to admire it then."
"It is on me. Why don't you look for it?" I asked with a smile. I was not yet totally sure about his intent, thus I preferred him to take the first step.
He asked me, "What is your name, stranger? I don't know it yet..."
"Lorenzo Zorzi."
"Lo-ren-so. You desire to lie with me, is it not so?"
"If it is also what you desire, I ask for nothing better."
"Then come. I had a soft couch prepared so that on it our desires could reveal themselves and come true."
He guided me in a space bounded by four veils, on a soft bed covered by white silk, wide about six ells by six. Then he clapped his hands three times. We were standing at about two ells from each other. After a while four half-naked slaves came; two approached me and two Wang and started to take off our clothes, one after the other. As they were undressing us, their hands were caressing our bodies in a skillful way.
Wang had his eyes fixed on my body and I on his - if his face was wonderful, his body was splendid. He was as if he had been shaped by a sculptor who had been able to mix the firm fullness of an adult male body with the soft and pure tenderness of an ephebic body. He had a perfect figure with well drawn muscles and skin smooth like silk. The servants were undressing us with studied slowness and not only their hands were brushing us, but gradually also their half-naked bodies, their lips, so that when the last piece of clothing fell, we both were hoisting a splendid erection.
Then each servants' couple started to lick and suck our most sensitive points. I was so much excited and so strongly wanted to touch that marvellous body, that I almost didn't see the four half-naked boys, who were anyway beautiful, and who were taking care of our bodies. Almost in a ecstasy, I moved two paces towards the object of my desire and then the four servants slipped away, as silently they came, taking our clothes with them and leaving us alone.
I raised my hands and lightly brushed that marvellous body and felt it lightly quiver at my touch. His eyes fixed on mine, he seized my erect and palpitating pole, tested its hardness and opened in a very sweet smile. He then slipped down on his knees and started to kiss, lick it, until I too, feeling my legs yield to the emotion, slipped down on the soft mattress.
We then laid on our sides, one in front of the other, head to foot, and each of us took in his mouth the virile glory of the other, sucking it with passionate pleasure. Soon our limbs were all a tangle and a furious fire burned all our senses, making us adhere to each other. I felt like living in a dream, having such a perfect body all for me! I would have liked having a hundred hands, a hundred members, a hundred mouths the better to enjoy this exquisite young male!
We again started to suck each other, moaning softly in our pleasure. One of my fingers tested his back entrance and felt it fresh and palpitating. His finger tempted mine and lingered there for a long time, until, moaning, we drank one from the other the pleasure waves that were spurting from our blazing rods.
We had just parted when Wang clapped again his hands, this time only twice, and the four boys, now totally naked, silently appeared again and started to take care of our bodies once more.
Wang seized my hand and intertwined his fingers with mine. He said, "It is really beautiful being here like this, with you, Lo-ren-so. Be my guest for all the time I can remain here, I beg you."
"I would like being your guest... all my life long..."
"It would be beautiful, but it is not possible."
"Are you perhaps married?"
"Yes, I am, but that is not the problem. You see, I am the favourite of the Emperor. And if, when I am traveling, I am allowed to unite with whoever I desire, when I am at the Court I can only be his own. Let's enjoy the time that remains to me, without asking more from life."
"Will you stay here for a long time?"
"Just one more moon, than I have to go back." Wang answered and made sign to the slaves to leave us.
Then he pulled me to himself and we started again to make love with renewed energy and pleasure. The long peparation done by the servants, then the contact with that splendid body, made me crazy with desire.
At a certain point I could no longer restrain my desire and with sweet violence I tried do submit him. He then made a signal and the four servants came back. For a moment I feared he was angry with me for my attempt and was therefore about to apologize, but the slaves at once started to spread perfumed anointments on my and his rod, as well as on my and his hole, with skilled fingers, lingering at that task and so further increasing my desire and my pleasure. When we were both ready, we were again left alone.
Then Wang offered himself to me, with such a sweet and inviting smile that tenderness got the upper hand of me and I took him with restrained energy. I was in the full of the penetration and was riding him with increasing impetuosity when the slaves came again and started to caress our bodies. That discreet presence, far from bothering me, was just increasing the pleasure I was feeling so that, at last, I gave him all my seed, sprinkling the depths of his love channel.
The slaves' hands were accompanying my movements, then helped me to lie down, gently cleaned our bodies then prepared me to receive Wang into me. I saw him majesticly tower between my legs, drawing nearer, assisted and guided by those skilled, helpful and ready hands, then enter me, gradually sinking, and I felt that never a penetration had been sweeter and more agreable. His rod was not big as mine or as many that I had previously received, and yet he knew how to fill me, and he was tossing inside me in a marvellous way. I abandoned myself to that wonderful love dance, rejoicing each moment of that union, hoping that he would prolong it to the maximum, that he didn't become tired riding me.
The four slaves started to lick all our bodies in unison. But my eyes were fixed on the powerful torso of my rider and on his wonderful face and I followed with my eyes the darting of his muscles at each lunge he was giving me, and spied and enjoyed the signs of his approaching orgasm. He seemed to me as a half-god and I felt I belonged to him, I totally was his thing. When at last I felt the contractions of his living stem inside me, I instinctively accompanied them with strong contractions of my hole and saw his face change color with the intensity of his pleasure. Finally he had collapsed and those helpful hands eased his beautiful body near to mine, cleaned us and again disappeared.
I then held him tight against me and whispered, " Do you know, you have been fantastic,?"
"You are fantastic. Will you be my guest all this moon long?"
"Certainly yes. I will give orders to Prema to manage my shop at my place and will stay at your feet night and day, ready to satisfy your smallest desire."
"With you near me, my desire can only be big. Do you know that I am again feeling the desire to drink at your source?"
"Here I am; do whatever you want with me. Every fibre of my body belongs to you."
"Only that?"
"I'm afraid not. Also every beat of my heart, every breath of my mouth, every throb of my soul..."
"It almost seems to be a love declaration..."
"I am afraid it is..."
"Are you afraid?"
"Yes, because I know that soon all this will come to an end and instead love yearns for eternity. And I feel that I am really falling in love with you."
"Of my body, you mean."
"That too, but of you all. The light of your smile, the deepness of your glance, the music of your voice, everything! With you I experienced paradise. If you told me you want me as your slave, I will follow you in chains, just to belong to you."
"But I am already a slave, after all. I enjoy of great power in this land, as long as I remain the favourite of the Emperor. But if I turn my back to him, there would be only a stab for me. Did you see these four slaves, so helpful and ready to increase my pleasure? They never lose sight of me for a single moment and each of them has a dagger ready for me. I am allowed to have a lover too, but just for one moon and no more. I would like taking you with me, and for sure not in chains, but I cannot. The most powerful man in the empire after the Son of Heaven, is just like a slave. I am like the moon - its light exists only because it reflects the sunlight."
"And if you are the moon, what can I ever be?"
"A peach blossom, that lasts only for the breath of one night. But we have not to be sad, let's enjoy the month that is allowed to us. It will be a month I will remember for a long time, a very long time. And the incense you gave me... I will burn a cone only once each full moon, in this day of the cock, so that I will renew your memory for twelve years, until the horse year will come again... The horse who came for me from the West."
I remained with him and that was the most beautiful month of all my life. During that month he called a famous painter and made him paint two portraits - he kept mine and gave me his own. I still have it and from time to time I look at it. And I think that he has to burn three kinds of incense before he can forget me."
"I don't believe he will forget you, master." Poletto murmured.
"You are sweet, my boy."
"Are you still in love with him?"
"All in all, I have been a little in love with everyone I made love with... and then with none of them. Wang is the person with whom I was nearer to totally fall in love. If he just was free... who knows."
"I think it is really wonderful being in love."
"Certainly yes, I too think so. Beyond the simple infatuation, the sudden crush, the falling in love for the first time. Having somebody with whom one can share everything, also his life. Somebody being more important for you than yourself, and you for him. Not only somebody who likes enjoy with you but, if life asks it, also being able suffer with you... and making you never feel alone. But now, enough with these philosophical speeches. Now, we are here, you and I, and we need each other."
They tenderly embraced, their bodies tightend against each other, they searched for each other, communicated their mutual desire without needing words and gave themselves to each other. Neither of them was feeling alone.
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 21
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