Layli and Majnun Read online

The luck that lay asleep in me has died;

  I cherished it in all simplicity—

  Would that Good Fortune had kept faith with me.”

  *

  Weeping, Majnun turned to Nofal, and felt

  His rage like molten lava seethe and melt:

  “With friendship you began, but in the end

  You went back on your promise to your friend;

  How bright the dawn was, but that morning light

  Turned to the hopeless darkness of the night!

  What happened to your hand that almost caught—

  And then declined to catch—the prey I sought?

  You led me thirsty to Euphrates’ brink

  And then before I had the chance to drink

  You shoved me into hell, as if you made

  Then snatched away from me cool lemonade;

  You set sweet cakes before me, but when I

  Reached out for them . . . swatted me like a fly.

  The thread is knotted and its goal’s forgotten;

  As weightless as a bit of airy cotton.”

  And having said all this, he tugged his reins

  As if to gallop off across the plains.

  Nofal perceived his anger then, and tried

  To comfort and console him; he replied,

  “I’ll search this land and find a woman who

  Will make a flawless, worthy bride for you,

  Who’s modest, rich, whose breasts are silvery white,

  Whose lovely buttocks gleam quick-silver bright;

  With her you’ll find good luck, and wealth will bless

  Your home again with prosperous happiness.”

  They tried to give him hope, but could not make

  The chain about his heart unlock or break;

  Majnun rode off as his confusion grew,

  Till like a cloud he disappeared from view.

  *

  Once back at home, Nofal would sit each day

  With friends and talk, to while the hours away,

  Chatting about Majnun, and endlessly

  Recounting this poor outcast’s history,

  Whose whereabouts were all unknown, whose name

  Seemed struck abruptly from the roll of fame;

  And as they questioned him, Nofal’s friends heard

  Majnun’s sad tale, recounted word by word.

  Majnun Frees Deer from a Hunter’s Trap

  Here are the things the teller of this tale

  Revealed next as he drew aside its veil:

  *

  Majnun was like a bird that soars on wings

  Of thwarted love, and as he soars he sings;

  When he had left Nofal’s men, he made haste

  To fly like wind across the desert waste,

  Singing of Sheikh Nofal’s cruel treachery,

  Of his betrayal, his inconstancy,

  Singing in every hamlet, everywhere

  Complaining of his fate and his despair.

  *

  And as he wept he glimpsed far off one day

  A trap that had been laid for wandering prey,

  And saw a few deer had been captured there

  With hooves caught tightly in the huntsman’s snare.

  He saw the hunter’s knife was raised to shed

  Their blood, and wildly urged his horse ahead

  To stop him if he could, and loudly cried,

  “I am your guest, it’s me who should decide

  If they should die, and I say, ‘Let them be!’

  Open the trap and set these creatures free—

  We all have souls, and what makes you so fit

  To say who keeps his soul, who loses it?

  Such lovely hindquarters and eyes, you’d swear

  They’re marked, ‘Preserve, and treat with utmost care!’

  How can you contemplate this brutal deed,

  To stab these strangers, and to watch them bleed?

  You’d be a savage wolf if you could bring

  Yourself to do this loathsome, wicked thing.

  Isn’t their scent like spring, don’t you surmise

  You see your lover when you see their eyes?

  For love’s sake let them go, cherish them, make

  Life’s joyous freedom theirs for springtime’s sake;

  Those throats should not be cut, those necks should feel

  A golden necklace there, not tempered steel,

  Those eyes as dark as kohl should never be

  Mixed with the trampled earth’s impurity,

  Those flanks that silver envies aren’t mere meat

  To quarter cruelly and then grill and eat,

  Those gorgeous hindquarters were never made

  For wounds inflicted by a dagger’s blade,

  Those navels where musk’s fragrance forms and grows

  Should never be the places where blood flows,

  Those delicate, small hooves should never be

  Subject to anguish and to agony,

  Nor those strong, never-burdened backs be found

  Laid low and broken on the dusty ground.”

  *

  The huntsman wondered what on earth he meant

  And bit his finger in astonishment;62

  He said, “I hear you, and I might agree,

  If I weren’t thwarted by my poverty;

  Two months of hunting’s brought me what I need

  And I’ve my children and a wife to feed.

  How can a man in my position give

  The prey I’ve hunted for, the right to live?

  If you’re so anxiously affected by them

  They’re yours, provided you’ve the means to buy them.”

  *

  At once Majnun leaped from his horse, and handed

  Its bridle to the man he’d reprimanded.

  “Take this,” he said. The huntsman grasped the reins,

  And rode off happily across the plains.

  Majnun then, as he kissed each deer’s black eyes,

  Murmured, “These aren’t the eyes I idolize,

  But even so they bring me memories of

  The lovely eyes with which I am in love.”

  He bowed before the deer repeatedly

  As if he worshiped them, then set them free.

  They dashed off quickly, and Majnun made haste

  To chase them as they crossed the desert waste,

  Calling them as he went; his armor weighed

  Him down and slowed the progress that he made,

  As if it were a rosebush briar that grows

  So densely it obliterates its rose.

  He reached a sandy place that was as hot

  As boiling water seething in a pot;

  His clothes in tatters, it began to seem

  His heart would soon volatilize to steam,

  But then the air grew dark; the world was shaded

  By night’s black banner as the sunlight faded.

  A path of moonlight lay across the land

  Like a thin thread, a glittering strand—

  The night was dark as Layli’s curls, the light

  As slender as her body, and as bright.

  Now in a cave Majnun moaned like a snake

  A lizard’s bitten, wretched, wide awake,

  Curled like a snake, or tossing there and turning,

  Like thorns thrown on a fire that’s fiercely burning;

  He sighed and sang his songs, and groaned and wept

  Throughout the night till dawn, and never slept.

  Majnun Frees Another Deer from a Huntsman

  Morning shone brightly; Ethiopian night

  Frowned
and then fled before the dawning light

  That rose from China to pervade the skies.

  Majnun awoke, and was as quick to rise

  As scent diffused by fire, and like such scent

  His sweetness seemed to fill the firmament.

  Now like a lover singing sad refrains

  He started off across the barren plains;

  How ardently he sang, and may God bless

  His songs that echoed in that wilderness!

  *

  And then before his eyes, what should appear

  But one more trap, and in it one more deer,

  And there another lion-like hunter bent

  On slaughtering this rosy innocent

  Whose neck was stretched before the lifted knife

  About to shed its blood and take its life.

  His shout was sharp,63 as when a doctor needs

  To lance a lesion and ensure it bleeds:

  “Hey you, you domineering dog, release

  That helpless creature, let it go in peace;

  Set your poor prisoner free to roam and graze

  And know contentment for a few more days,

  Let him rejoice now, while it’s not too late

  To be together with his chosen mate.

  Tonight, how will his doe address you when

  She sees he’s gone and won’t return again?

  She’ll say, ‘Now that you’ve taken him from me

  I wish for you a condign misery;

  May you not see one happy day, may you

  Be tortured by the torments I’ve been through.’

  If you’re afraid of how the anguished sighs

  Of wretched sufferers ascend the skies,64

  Don’t do this deed; what will you think when you’re

  The fated prey the hunter’s hunting for?”

  The huntsman stepped back from the deer and said,

  “And if I spare this animal instead

  Of killing it, what can you offer me?

  You can’t expect me to do this for free.

  Hunting’s my livelihood; show me what you

  Might pay me, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  Majnun set down his weapons, then unbound

  His armored gear and laid it on the ground;

  The huntsman made off with the lot, and thought

  His haul far better than the prey he’d caught.

  *

  Then as a father comes close to his child

  Majnun approached the stag and gently smiled;

  He calmed it, stroked it, as a friend caressed it,

  And where he saw a wound he soothed and dressed it;

  He rubbed the deer down, brushed dust from its hide,

  Then brushed away the copious tears he cried.65

  He said, “You’re like me, love has been denied you,

  You’ve lost the one who ought to be beside you;

  Dear mountain dweller, matchless liege-lord of

  The upland plains, how you recall my love—

  Your scent evokes her fragrance,66 and your eyes

  Resemble hers in darkness and in size,

  Now may your hooves be freed from where they’re caught,

  Now may you lie beside the love you’ve sought,

  Now may no devious hunter’s traps confront you

  Or monarchs with their lariats try to hunt you.

  Nestled within your mouth, adorning it,

  Your teeth are lovelier than a golden bit,

  No splendid clothes could be more dignified

  Than is the glory of your leathern hide,

  Your tears are poison’s antidote, although

  It’s better that these tears now cease to flow.

  Dear noble beast, open your heart to one

  Whose burning heart’s despair is never done—

  I know that in these parts there’s gossip of

  The presence of that full moon whom I love;

  If, as you graze, you see her, oh explain

  To her the nature of my grief and pain;

  Tell her, ‘O prisoner of my enemy,

  I’m such as you would never hope to see—

  We’re far from one another, and I’m sure

  That you endure the grief that I endure;

  An old man with no news of you is like

  An arrow that shoots wide and fails to strike,

  And I don’t pay the least attention to

  Breezes that bring to me no scent of you,

  As thoughts that aren’t of you cannot remain

  Embedded anywhere within my brain.’”

  A hundred times and more, he told such tales

  Of all his anguished sorrows and travails,

  Then kissed the deer’s dark eyes, and dexterously

  Untied his hobbled hooves, and set him free.

  *

  When he had gone, Majnun set off again

  Wandering at random through the empty plain.

  The moon shone in the heavens as night fell

  Like Joseph’s face within his darksome well—67

  The stars were like the Nile, foaming and flowing,

  The heavens like Egypt glittered with their glowing,

  And like the Nile Majnun moved on and on;

  Unsure of where he was and where he’d gone,

  Haphazard as a slithering snake’s tongue darts,

  Or like a hen that pecks by fits and starts,

  A twisting injured snake that cannot rest,

  A wing-clipped hen uneasy on her nest.

  As oil burns in a lamp he felt desire

  Flare up in him, his brain blazed like a fire—

  He was a candle burning through the night,

  Unresting, self-consumed by fire and light.

  Majnun Talks to a Raven

  Gold streaked the purple heavens as dawn’s light

  Spread through the dark and drove away the night;

  That smiling yellow rose, the bright sun, spread

  Its petaled beams and stained the sky rose red.

  Majnun was like an autumn rose that’s dying,

  Wet with the tears that he was always crying;

  Dawn’s breeze dried all his fiery tears, but soon

  He felt the burning of the blaze of noon.

  His clothes were no protection, so he found

  A tree, and sat beneath it on the ground,

  And there a pool (whose limpid waters’ gleam

  Was like the purity of Kosar’s stream)68

  Was bordered by clean, verdant grass that made

  The shady place a paradisal glade.

  Hot now and thirsty, gratefully he sank

  Down on the lush, fresh grass and deeply drank,

  And for a while he rested from his seeking,

  From hearing nothing and from always speaking.69

  *

  The grass he lay on seemed like green brocade

  Beneath the lovely tree’s enchanting shade;

  He saw a raven perched there, on a tree,

  Its eyes like lamps in their intensity;

  Its blackness was as dark as Layli’s hair

  And seemed a sign of heartfelt, deep despair;

  It sat there silent, sharp-eyed, watching him,

  A jet-black stone within a turquoise rim.70

  Majnun thought, “This black traveler seems to be

  A stricken being who is much like me.”

  He cried, “Hey, Blacky! Tell me why you’re dressed

  In black like this? What’s made you so depressed?

  Why are your clothes so dark? The day is bright,

  What’s made you c
hoose to be as dark as night?

  Grief’s fire has charred my heart, but why are you

  Dressed in this melancholy, mourning hue?

  And if you’re heart’s not burnt, what’s made you choose

  The pitch-black color men with charred hearts use?

  And if you’re one of us, why would you flee

  Elsewhere, abandoning the likes of me?

  Where have you sprung from, Blacky? Who are you?

  The offspring of some pillaging Hindu?

  Am I a king, and you’re up there to shade me?

  If not, what’s all this spectacle you’ve made me?

  The day you find my friend, say that I say,

  ‘Without you I’m a floundering castaway,

  Save me, and if you can’t . . . then there will be

  No hope for me, and there’ll be no more me.’

  Tell her, ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t hesitate,

  I fear I’ll die in this heartbroken state.’

  Say to her, ‘Hurry, when the eyes are gone

  Applying kohl’s no good to anyone,

  And when the wolf has seized the lamb, how can

  A shepherd’s shouting help the wretched man?

  When once a flood has swept away a wall

  No iron or plaster’s any use at all,

  A rock-strewn, barren field cannot bear crops

  Whether rain never comes or never stops.’”

  He shot his speech’s dart so forcefully

  The startled raven flew from tree to tree;

  Majnun spread wings of all he had to say—

  The raven spread its wings and flew away;

  His vehement ranting made the bird desert him,

  The raven left, and this surprised and hurt him.

  *

  Night like a raven’s sable wing descended,

  Bats woke up from their sleep, and day was ended;

  You’d say the stars were lamps that lit the skies,

  Or that they shone like ravens’ glittering eyes.

  Majnun was like a lamp that gives no light

  As raven-darkness blotted out his sight;

  He fell, and till the dawn broke never slept,

  A candle self-consumed that burned and wept.

  Majnun Deliberately Becomes an Old Woman’s Prisoner

  When morning’s veil was lifted and dawn’s light

  Made all the waking world and heavens bright,

  Gardens came into flower on every side,

  And heaven’s lamp spread glory far and wide.

  Majnun flew like a raven here and there

  Or like a moth that flutters through the air,

  Drawn by a lamp, and as a pining lover