PC196: The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman

[Talia]

PodCastle 196: The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman

Originally appeared in The Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Read the text in various places, such as here and here.

Translated by Sir Richard Burton.

Read by Wilson Fowlie (of The Maple Leaf Singers).

At last Destiny brought us to an island, fair and verdant, in trees abundant, with yellow-ripe fruits luxuriant, and flowers fragrant and birds warbling soft descant, and streams crystalline and radiant. But no sign of man showed to the descrier- no, not a blower of the fire. The captain made fast with us to this island, and the merchants and sailors landed and walked about, enjoying the shade of the trees and the song of the birds, that chanted the praises of the One, the Victorious, and marveling at the works of the Omnipotent King.

Rated PG.

Listen to this week’s PodCastle!

[InfiniteMonkey]

Ya Mailk al-Jebal!! (the closest I can get to "King of the Mountain" in Arabic)

Hooray!!! Sinbad! Islam's first superhero. Or super-adventurer. Along with rocs and rhinos. It was good to hear it in, well, not the original, but as close as those of us who can't read Arabic are probably going to get. As usual Mr. Fowlie makes Victorian Literary English digestible.

Want more! There are, after all, 1001 nights...

[Max e^{i pi}]

I have read some translation of 1001 Arabian Nights before, I just forgot which. So the story wasn't new to me.
I just wanted to say that Wilson's reading was superb.

[Unblinking]

As always, a great reading by Wilson.  He's one of my favorite readers on this or any other cast. 

1001 Arabian Nights is one of those books that's sitting on my shelf that I want to get to sometime, but have never quite made it.  This was a nice preview.  I didn't find it compelling on any really deep level, but it was a fun in a don't-think-too-hard-about-it adventure kind of way.  It was brief enough and enough changes in scenery happened that I didn't get bored, but neither did I really feel a lot of tension.  It was a decent adventure story, not one that will go on my list of favorites, but not bad.

[Devoted135]

I love it when PodCastle runs classic stories, and Wilson did a superb job once again. Definitely left me wanting more. *wanders off to check if there's a good kindle version available*


ETA: in fact there is, and it's only $4.61
http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-ARABIAN-Arabian-Nights-ebook/dp/B004L9LKYG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1329405527&sr=8-5

[Max e^{i pi}]

I love it when PodCastle runs classic stories, and Wilson did a superb job once again. Definitely left me wanting more. *wanders off to check if there's a good kindle version available*


ETA: in fact there is, and it's only $4.61
http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-ARABIAN-Arabian-Nights-ebook/dp/B004L9LKYG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1329405527&sr=8-5

Infinitely cheaper: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3435
Pick any format you like (EPUB, Kindle, Plucker, QiOO or just plain text).

[Devoted135]

I love it when PodCastle runs classic stories, and Wilson did a superb job once again. Definitely left me wanting more. *wanders off to check if there's a good kindle version available*


ETA: in fact there is, and it's only $4.61
http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-ARABIAN-Arabian-Nights-ebook/dp/B004L9LKYG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1329405527&sr=8-5

Infinitely cheaper: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3435
Pick any format you like (EPUB, Kindle, Plucker, QiOO or just plain text).

Even better! Thanks

[Fenrix]

I want to start by complimenting the great reading by Wilson Fowlie. I imagined everything in this story as if it were animated by Ray Harryhausen. Ray and Sinbad and now Wilson will be permanently linked in my head.