Layli and Majnun Read online

For you to sleep; time in its endless race

  Is rushing on—what’s here to lie upon

  But rocks and thorns? The sooner that you’re gone

  From here the better! Look how heaven’s dart

  Has cruelly spilled your blood and pierced your heart,

  A few more days with boulders as your bed

  Will surely finish you and you’ll be dead,

  You’ll be a body, decomposing meat

  For animals like wolves and lions to eat;

  Better to be a dog in streets you know

  Than suffer all that exiles undergo;

  Where have you reached by running on and on?

  Somewhere it’s better that you’d never gone!

  It isn’t reasonable to grieve; grief makes

  A man so weak that his resolve soon breaks;

  Look how a flood that’s unforeseen will burst

  A river’s banks and leave a plain submersed,

  Or how a flood roars down a mountainside

  Causing its slopes to crumble and subside;

  Your grief’s like this—if you were iron you

  Could not resist the harm such grief will do,

  Stubborn rebelliousness fills all your days,

  Now for a few days try more yielding ways;

  Your head tugs at the reins, your heart’s on fire,

  But still you can’t accomplish your desire—

  Stop urging this steed on, it’s foolishness,

  So stop all this ridiculous excess,

  Stop acting like the demons’ honored guest

  Or like a pit that demons have possessed!

  Be patient, strong, let all this turmoil leave you,

  And don’t let silly specious lies deceive you.

  Be happy, life’s mere wind, intelligence

  Says pleasure is the soul-mate of good sense.

  If pleasure is a lie or if it’s real

  Its presence will enhance the way you feel—

  Better to be content and happy than

  To chase vague fancies like a foolish man;

  Unhealthy longings have no solid bases,

  You can’t rely on them, they’re empty spaces;

  Men store up grain they have, since all men know

  Many won’t eat the harvest that they sow.

  Now life is yours, it’s in your hands, today,

  So see that you enjoy it while you may—

  Tomorrow death will surely come for you

  And no excuse will work when death is due.

  The drink death brings you isn’t new, it’s made

  From all you brought to life’s long cavalcade—

  As women wear the garments that they’ve sewn,

  So men will reap the harvest that they’ve grown;

  If you act well today, the day of death

  Will be made fragrant by your actions’ breath—

  Know death before it comes, and pass away

  Untouched by pain or suffering on that day,

  A soul escapes death’s talons when it dies

  Before the body’s subsequent demise,90

  How a man fares in death depends upon

  The many deeds he has already done—

  He’ll smile on this last journey if good deeds

  Provide him the provisions that he needs.

  *

  “It’s up to you what happens next, but sit,

  Be calm, forget this madness, banish it!

  Each moment every sorrow will diminish,

  And every grief eventually must finish.

  Even dogs have a home, and you have none—

  Aren’t you a man still, when all’s said and done?

  If you’re a man then be one! And if you’re

  A devil, vanish! What’re you waiting for?

  Ghouls who live on the earth possess the guile

  To show themselves as humans for a while,

  But you’re a man, the noblest, wisest being,

  So what’s this ghoul’s behavior that I’m seeing?91

  For these few days that I have left, let’s ride

  As sociable companions, side by side;

  We are one flesh, so be my friend, and be

  A comfort in my weak old age to me.

  If you leave me tonight, tomorrow when

  You look for me, you won’t find me again—

  If what I’m saying seems too burdensome,

  Remember, heaven decrees when death must come;

  My end is close, accept this and be strong,

  Consent to what must come before too long.

  My page is written now; live cheerfully,

  Drink wine, rejoice when there’s no trace of me—

  Sadness has killed me and my life departs;

  Be safe, be happy in your heart of hearts.

  My sun’s traversed the skies, and, now it’s near

  That point when yellow sunset must appear;92

  You are the dawn, my day fades into night;

  My son, my soul is ready to take flight.

  Oh come to me, my soul, my boy, before

  Your father’s spirit will be here no more;

  When I have gone from here, see that you make

  Your house both warm and friendly, for my sake,

  So that before I die, I’ll know someone

  Is there to take my place when I am gone,

  And when my body’s taken you will be

  My true successor, here in place of me.

  No friend or enemy, when I am dead,

  Will stand for it if you’re not there instead,

  A stranger will appear, and soon despoil

  Riches that represent a lifetime’s toil—

  If you won’t take my place, who will be there

  To guard the wealth I gathered with such care?

  This is my swansong, spoken from my heart,

  My time has come, I’m ready to depart.

  Alas, that when I’m gone you’ll come and keep

  Your vigil at my grave and grieve and weep

  And bow your head down to my dust and mourn

  My passing deeply, wretched and forlorn.

  But should your soul go too, what will survive

  Of all my clan when you are not alive?”

  Majnun Answers His Father

  Majnun heard all his father’s words and tried

  To show him that his heart was satisfied,

  And, for a few days, struggled not to grieve him

  While wondering all the while how to deceive him.

  He tried renouncing love, but love betrayed

  Soon boxed his ears and made him more afraid

  (Love’s like an elephant, and when it starts

  It tramples heroes with the stoutest hearts,

  The arrows that are shot in love’s disputes

  Wound both the target and the one who shoots).

  Majnun’s head turned in turmoil, listening to

  His father’s thoughts on what he ought to do;

  He said, “The words you utter vivify me,

  Your thoughts resolve the problems that defy me,

  And as my teacher the advice you gave

  Instructed me and made me like your slave,

  Your words are like my soul’s lamp . . . but I fear

  They’re words of wisdom I no longer hear.

  I know what you advise is right, but I

  Can’t act like this, no matter how I try!

  Why mint me wisdom’s coins? You ridicule

  The coins I deal in, thinking I’m a fool;

  It’s love that rules me now and in my brain

 
The world itself’s not worth a barley grain!

  My fate is such that all the words I hear

  Disperse upon the wind and disappear.

  All that I knew is gone, and in my mind

  Only forgetfulness is left behind,

  Every last little scrap of what I heard

  Just yesterday is gone now, every word,

  And ask me what I’m doing now, this minute—

  My mind’s a total blank, there’s nothing in it!

  I know you’re my respected father, though

  Your name is gone, that’s something I don’t know,

  It isn’t just my father—I’m not sure

  Inside myself who I am any more;

  My own name’s gone now, and I can’t discover

  Which one I am—the loved one or the lover?

  The lightning in my heart has lit a fire

  That’s burns my inmost being with desire.

  I live off plants and herbs, my hunger’s died,

  Raw vegetation leaves me satisfied—

  I think this means I don’t need food to fill

  The maw of my digestion’s little mill.

  I’m lost in wildness now, and men like me

  Can’t live in civilized society,

  Who’d want to be the friend of someone wild

  Or learn the habits of a savage child?

  The melon’s fly-blown now, better to slit

  My stomach than have someone munch on it.

  I fear, when all men know my situation,

  The harm done to our friends’ good reputation—

  When someone’s skin’s all blisters children should

  Be kept away from him, for their own good.

  My longing is to be in ruined places

  Whose past inhabitants have left few traces—

  Take no account of me, my life is done,

  Imagine that you never had a son.

  Think of a man in love as one who’s dead,

  Who’s left this world now, and gone on ahead;

  You say the night of your last journey’s near

  While I am lost within my journey here.

  Your journey means my autumn’s come, alone

  We travel to what’s certain but unknown.

  Those who are living will soon weep for you,

  What can a dead man, such as I am, do?”

  Majnun’s Father Bids Him Farewell

  His father saw the pain his anguish brought him

  And how the world of love had wholly caught him,

  He gave up hope that he could heal his son—

  Such feverish knots could never be undone.

  He said, “O loved and wearisome sweet boy,

  You’re both my shackles and my crowning joy,

  I’ve heard your hopelessness, your misery,

  And said farewell now to both you and me;

  Your father weeps for you, tears blear his sight,

  And you should weep too, as is only right,

  Stand up, embrace me now before we part,

  And pour your tears into my grieving heart—

  They’ll cleanse me as I die, and they’ll bestow

  Consoling dreams upon me as I go.

  It’s readiness, not kohl, a traveler’s eyes

  Require on this last journey as he dies,

  So now, before I leave you, hold me fast—

  How long the warmth of your embrace must last!

  I’m entering the other world, I know,

  My tent is folded, I’m prepared to go,

  But I shan’t travel far from you, I’m leaving

  But still in death I’ll join in all your grieving.

  Farewell, I’m going to that place whence men

  Who’ve traveled there cannot come back again;

  Farewell, my self dissolves, I cannot stay,

  My caravan’s already on its way.”

  *

  He turned aside then, and along the track

  By which he’d come began his journey back

  And reached home wearily and sick at heart

  Knowing his soul was ready to depart.

  Weakly, for two more days now, and in pain,

  His soul traversed the last of life’s terrain

  And when death stepped forth from its ambush, he

  Quitted his mortal substance willingly.

  The heavenly bird flew upward from its snare

  And in truth’s realm shed every earthly care—

  His soul grasped heaven’s rope; his earthly frame

  Descended to the earth from which it came.

  *

  The soul at rest is one that had no rest

  But like the moon relentlessly progressed

  Through earthly life, and like the lightning’s light

  Came and departed quickly in the night.

  Don’t pause here, since this fleeting world begets

  Sorrow and pain and infinite regrets,

  The man who thinks this world his home will find

  That peace is banned forever from his mind,

  While one who looks to heaven knows that he

  Will never die but lives eternally.

  The world’s a devil with an angel’s face

  And you must perish in its cruel embrace,

  Or it’s a bowl of bleeding entrails cut

  From our and every human being’s gut.

  If in this world you cherish anyone

  The world ensures that he will soon be gone,

  It is the devils’ home, a place of grieving

  That floods of pilgrim-souls are always leaving.

  The world’s mouth seems as sweet as dates; take care!

  Her kiss will show you thorns are hidden there.

  Your cypress grows in water that’s unfit

  And brackish, spiky spines encompass it.

  How long will you endure this, to attack

  And ignominiously be driven back?

  Take life for what it is, the world is pain,

  You’re part of it, it’s pointless to complain.

  A clever thief will steal a precious jewel

  From everything around it, he’s no fool;

  A snake though doesn’t know what jewels are worth,

  He lets it go, and dines on slime and earth—

  You are the flower that lights the world, don’t be

  The earthbound snake that acts so foolishly.

  *

  Great kings and holy men once ruled the earth

  Whose rulers now are of inferior worth,

  Look who has taken those past sovereigns’ place—

  The leavings of a rabble-rousing race.

  You won’t attain those former heroes’ fame

  Unless you leave behind a righteous name;

  Renounce all evil, act then as you should,

  Good fortune follows those whose deeds are good;

  When you’ve been harmed, this wasn’t done by those

  Whom you believe to be your mortal foes,

  All of the harmful things they seemed to do

  Derived in truth from no one else but you.

  Act well then, and reflect upon this fact,

  An actor’s the recipient of his act—

  It’s like a voice that travels out, and then

  The echo of that voice comes back again;

  Whisper your secrets to a mountainside,

  And as they come back they are multiplied.

  *

  Consider heaven’s ways with careful eyes,

  And you will understand, if you are wise,

  Nothing outdoes the heavens, no man
’s look

  Deciphers what’s inscribed in heaven’s book;

  No mangonel, no mighty catapult,

  Can break the battlements of heaven’s vault

  That are so far from earth they have no fear

  Of any taunts or threats that rise from here.

  Don’t peer with purblind eyes around this pit,

  Many like you have fallen into it,

  And do you think that some long winding rope

  Will come to haul you out? Is this your hope?

  The feast that’s spread out here will prove to be

  No feast at all, since it’s illusory.

  Where you see noble buildings, all around

  Ruins of noble buildings can be found,

  These ruins were once buildings, firm and strong,

  These buildings will be ruins before long,

  And every village shows how buildings fall

  And wise precautions are no use at all.

  Majnun Learns of His Father’s Death

  One day by chance, in the late afternoon,

  A hunter happened to pass by Majnun;

  It was a lion that the hunter sought

  But when he saw Majnun, sunk deep in thought,

  He stopped, and angrily spoke up, as though

  A sword and not his tongue would deal the blow:

  “What are you doing brooding here, so far

  From where your friends and all your family are?

  Caring for Layli only, unaware

  Of how your home is, or what’s happened there,

  Forgetful of your parents and their name—

  You shameless oaf, shame on your lack of shame!

  A son who’s dead and buried’s better than

  A son unworthy to be called a man!

  Your father was alive when some rash whim

  Made you decide that you’d abandon him

  And now he’s dead I wish long life to you,

  But honoring him’s the least that you can do—

  Come to his grave, show sorrow and respect,

  Seek pardon from his soul for your neglect.”

  Hearing such words, Majnun’s frail body bowed,

  Bent like a harp, crying his grief aloud,

  He threw himself headlong, and with loud moans

  Battered and bruised his forehead against stones,

  And desperately began to weep and rave,

  Running until he reached his father’s grave,

  And when he found the place it was as though

  He’d found a diamond shattered with a blow;

  He fell upon the dust and wildly grasped it

  And like a lover to his body clasped it,

  He wept such tears of filial regret