Layli and Majnun

by Nezami Ganjavi

Then like a mounted king whose rivals yield

  Before him and forsake the battlefield,

  The rising sun put all the stars to flight

  And filled the firmament with morning’s light—

  Dawn broke the victor’s goblet raised on high

  And red wine poured from it across the sky.

  Majnun still sang his songs that boasted of

  His solitary existence and his love,

  And he forgot his mother, unaware

  That death had come for her in her despair.

  Salim came bravely to his friend once more,

  Bringing him food and clothing as before,

  But also with a mourner’s woeful cries—

  “Oh, far from you, your mother’s closed her eyes,

  Longing, as did your father, for her son

  She’s quit this world forever now, she’s gone.”

  Majnun, distraught at what Salim had said,

  Repeatedly and wildly struck his head,

  Groan upon groan he wailed, moan upon moan,

  And fell down like a glass smashed by a stone—

  Smearing his head with dust, wildly he cried

  For both his parents’ deaths and how they’d died.

  *

  He hurried to their graves, and bent his head

  Down to the dust that lay upon the dead,

  Sprawling on each of them, knowing no one,

  No balm, brings back the dead when they are gone.

  His relatives heard all his endless crying

  And saw the graves on which Majnun was lying—

  They sympathized with all his misery

  And tried to find some helpful remedy.

  They saw he’d fallen, at his feet they fell,

  They saw him weeping and they wept as well,

  And as they shared his desperate sorrow, soon

  Like rosewater their tears revived Majnun129

  And as he struggled back to consciousness

  They greeted him with earnest friendliness,

  Saying that now he’d come back home he should

  Stay with them there, and settle down for good.

  But heartfelt sorrow and his mind’s distress

  Urged him to seek the empty wilderness;

  He sighed, and left them there, and set off for

  The mountain fastness where he’d lived before;

  Wild beasts fell in behind him, but no one,

  No human friend, pursued him once he’d gone—

  The world of humans seemed to him to be

  A place of evil and iniquity.

  He left as lightning flashes disappear,

  Or as a cloud does when the sky grows clear.

  *

  Be it a thousand years, or but a day,

  Our earthly life’s foundations fall away;

  Life bears the seal of death, no matter how

  Its sweetness flatters and deceives us now;

  Ah, you forget that one day you must die,

  That you must bid your precious soul goodbye.

  How long will you applaud yourself, and scoff

  At death, and say it’s still a long way off?

  Your mind is feeble, and it cannot give

  You any notion of how long you’ll live.

  *

  Every detectable small speck of earth

  Is satisfied with its extent and girth—

  Compared to Mount Qaf,130 though, a speck is just

  A useless scrap, a tiny bit of dust.

  Look at yourself—what leaf, what tiny tree

  Are you in all the countryside we see?

  Look at how small you are, beneath the high

  And overarching vastness of the sky—

  Examine who you are, do it with care,

  Your own assessment says you’re hardly there.

  You thought you were a great thing on the earth,

  Well satisfied with your extent and worth,

  This “greatness” though, is relatively small,

  So low you’ll think you’re scarcely there at all,

  If you go further on, if you persist,

  You’ll find you even doubt that you exist.

  *

  Be humble, sit upon the earth, pour dust

  And dirt upon your shame and self-disgust;

  You grasp a few old coins within your hand

  And boast the world is yours now to command,

  But while you’re in this world, your neediness

  Will always bring you failure and distress.

  Your wanting earthly friends still hasn’t gone,

  It’s still this world that you depend upon—

  In all your fawning, though, be careful that

  You’re not some begging dog or wheedling cat!

  Layli Sends a Message to Majnun

  Layli preserved her chastity, but she

  Could not keep secret all her misery

  Which made her like a lover’s anguished sighs

  Choking a thousand times with stifled cries—

  Missing Majnun, imprisoned by her pain,

  Grief’s anxious captive, chained without a chain.

  Her husband’s watchful jealousy was spread

  Like broken glass wherever she might tread,

  So that she wouldn’t slip away at night

  Like drunks in search of dubious delight;

  He humbly, kindly, humored her all day,

  Indulging all her whims in every way,

  But still, whatever strategy he tried,

  She brushed him off, and coldly turned aside.

  And then, one pitch-black night when not a fly

  Was stirring and the watch was not nearby,

  She stole into the street, not thinking of

  Her husband’s presence but her absent love.

  *

  She found a spot beside a thoroughfare

  (No enemy’d suspect that she was there),

  And sat to wait for someone passing who

  Had seen her friend to tell her what he knew;

  And there the old man came, the one who’d taken

  Her letter for her when she’d felt forsaken.

  He came on foot, deliberately but slowly,

  And seemed like Khezr, a man both wise and holy;131

  The lovely captive asked if he could give

  Her news about the man who chose to live

  Among wild beasts, deep in the wilderness,

  Whether he lived in joy now or distress,

  The one whose talk was always verse and rhyme,

  Who made up songs and sang them all the time.

  Kindly the old man said, “Dear beauteous moon,

  He’s Joseph in his well,132 this poor Majnun,

  Now he’s without you, wandering and wailing,

  Like a town-crier whose cries are unavailing.

  Every two steps he takes he cries for Layli,

  And everywhere he stops he sighs for Layli;

  Careless of who he is, he has but one

  Obsession, which is: where has Layli gone?”

  *

  And Layli wept, as if that cypress tree

  Would shrink into a reed from misery;

  Narcissus eyes shed agate tears that shone

  Against the jasmine skin they fell upon.

  She said, “I am his friend, and it’s for me

  That he endures such daily agony;

  We two are one in this sad state, we share

  Our endless misery and our despair,

  The difference is, he sighs on mountain tops,

  While in this pit my sighing never
stops.”

  She took off her jeweled earrings then, and kissed them,

  Relinquished them, and happily dismissed them,

  And said, “Take these, they’re yours, go back and spend

  A little time with my unhappy friend,

  Then bring him here by back-roads and conceal him

  Somewhere secure, where nothing will reveal him,

  And, once you have him hidden, let me know

  Exactly where it is I have to go

  To catch a glimpse of him—like him I’ll stay

  Invisible, and hide my self away.

  There I shall find out how he is, and whether

  His love for me is still as strong as ever;

  It may be that he’ll sing a line or two

  About his love and sorrow, something new—

  Oh, all the knots within my soul will be

  Untied if he should sing like this for me!”

  *

  The old man took the pierced pearls from the girl

  (Who was herself as yet an unpierced pearl)

  And tucked them in his sash. Without delay

  He set off, and procured along the way

  Some new clothes, since the ones Majnun had worn

  When last he’d seen him had been frayed and torn.

  He went through towns and empty wildernesses,

  And like the wind through mountain fastnesses

  Without success at first, but then he found

  Majnun stretched out upon the stony ground

  In mountain foothills, while around him lay

  Wild animals to drive mankind away.

  Majnun saw him approach, and couldn’t rest

  But like a baby fretful for the breast,

  Waited impatiently, then shouted to

  His beasts to part, and let the old man through;

  The beasts drew back respectfully, contritely,

  And Majnun came to meet his guest politely.

  Down to the earth the old man bowed his head,

  Greeted his host, apologized, and said:

  “Upholder of love’s realm, may you survive

  As long as love itself remains alive,

  Drink from your source like Khezr, like Alexander

  Traverse love’s world and be its sole commander.133

  The paragon of beauty has stayed true

  To all her promises of love for you,

  Layli sends greetings to you, and assures you

  That as she always has done she adores you;

  It is so long since she has seen a trace

  Of you, or heard your voice, or glimpsed your face,

  She longs to see you and to sit beside you

  Just for a moment—and I’ve come to hide you

  Where you can see her face and put an end

  To your extended exile from your friend,

  And you can comfort her by singing of

  The past you shared together and your love.

  There is a grove of palms where undergrowth

  Is so entwined that it’ll hide you both,

  A pleasant patch of green surrounded by

  Tall palm trees towering up into the sky.

  Spring’s sweetest flowers await your meeting there,

  There is the key to all you long to share.”

  *

  He showed Manjun the clothes he’d brought, and dressed him,

  And made him kindly promises, and blessed him.

  Majnun stepped free of all his old distress

  And fastened on the belt of sure success

  And followed the old man, feeling he’d found

  Life-giving water welling from the ground;134

  He moved like the Euphrates’ eager flow

  Or like the air when scented breezes blow,

  Behind him came his animals, all following

  Their liege-lord, their commander, and their king,

  A splendid and obedient retinue

  Traveling behind him to the rendezvous.

  *

  When they arrived at the appointed place

  Majnun sat at a towering palm tree’s base

  (They had agreed his retinue should stay,

  Apart from him, a bow-shot’s length away),

  While the old man went quickly off to tell

  Layli Majnun had come, and all was well.

  The lovely tent-dweller leaped up, as wild

  And swift as is a headlong fairy-child—

  She came within ten paces of her friend,

  Then felt her fortitude and willpower end;

  And said, “Old man, your kindness made me strong,

  But now, believe me, I cannot go on,

  I’m like a candle, one more step I know

  I’ll melt away within the candle’s glow.

  I have a husband, and it’s true he’s sleeping,

  But God knows this, and he is in His keeping;

  I never gave my heart to him, but I’m

  Not base and cruel enough for such a crime.

  I can’t look further, doing so would be

  Against all reason, and the death of me.

  Better no words at all than words that mean

  Things that are evil, noxious, and unclean,

  Though it might heal my sorrow, all the same

  I can’t do something that will bring me shame.

  Even Majnun who lives for love must know

  That further on than this we cannot go,

  But ask him if he’d make my heart rejoice

  With one or two lines sung by his sweet voice—

  If he brought wine, I’d drink it willingly

  And if he sings, the sound will nourish me.”

  *

  Spring’s charm was in these lovers, and they both

  Shone with the loveliness of spring’s new growth;

  The old man went from this sweet spring to that

  And saw Majnun had fainted; he lay flat

  Upon the stony ground, worn out and weak,

  With tearful traces smeared across his cheek.

  *

  Majnun revived, and slowly sat up next

  To the old man, and smiled as if perplexed,

  And said, “What springtime flower is this that’s lent

  The air that comes to me such lovely scent?

  But it’s no flower I know, it’s Layli’s hair

  That gives this fainting fragrance to the air,

  So delicate, so sweet, I’d sacrifice

  My aching heart for such a paradise.”

  Touched by such love, the old man said, “It’s wrong

  That you’ve been forced apart, and for so long;

  But you must call her first, then she’ll appear

  In all her loveliness beside you here . . .

  She’s not here, and you don’t know what to do!

  How will you be when she’s in front of you?”

  Majnun replied, “You have a good heart, so

  Don’t tell me old things I already know.

  It’s true that I have caught the scent of wine,

  That doesn’t mean the wine itself is mine.”

  Then he began to sing a few lines of

  The poems he’d composed in praise of love.

  Majnun Sings in Layli’s Presence

  “Where am I? Where are you? How were you made

  That I am yours no matter where I’ve strayed?

  I am a tuneless song, and God help me

  If you’re my rival or my enemy.

  I’m driven from my home, I reign and roam

  As does the full moon when she’s halfway home;


  Hardship is mine—give me fine clothes, I’ll tear them,

  But give me sackcloth garments and I’ll wear them,

  Fate doesn’t own me, grief delights in me

  As I delight in grief’s sweet company.

  I feel I die of thirst, and yet around me

  The water rises quickly and has drowned me,

  I am a bat who loves the night, but one

  Who is the dearest friend now of the sun.

  I’ve lost my way, and claim that I’m a guide,

  Homeless, I boast I own the countryside;

  I am a fraud, and claim I’m Solomon,

  Horseless, I claim it’s Rakhsh I ride upon,135

  I long for you with every step, my friend,

  And have no longing that this longing end;

  Inactive outwardly, within my heart

  I’m all impatience, chafing to depart.

  *

  “Surpassing wonderful in all you do,

  I’m a mere bandit who’s in love with you

  But when a bandit grabs an enemy

  He pulls her with him and she can’t get free;

  The reckless man who isn’t fearful whether

  He lives or dies, kills good and bad together;

  The wolf who fears his prey can only blame

  Himself for his embarrassment and shame.

  Before you’ve come, you’d leave me here alone . . . ?

  How can you harvest what you’ve never sown?

  And don’t wish me, ‘Good night’—how can it be

  A ‘good night’ when you won’t remain with me?

  And are our souls in separate worlds that you

  Can’t step in my direction? Is this true?

  Give me another soul to bear it, then,

  Or treat me better when you come again.

  If you won’t treat me generously, I fear

  My soul is leaving me and death is near,

  While any soul your lips speak kindly to

  Enjoys eternal life because of you.

  So many men desire to be your slaves—

  As I behave, though, none of them behaves,

  As long as I remember you my mind

  Is humble, happy, gladdened, and resigned—

  And may the night that I forget you be

  The night my heart becomes your enemy.

  *

  “From now on you and I, and I and you,

  May one heart beat for us although we’re two

  And it is right that heart be yours, since my

  Poor heart is broken and expects to die.

  Like dawn, we’ll have a single sun—one heart—

  When it appears a hundred suns depart,

  And we two shall be one, a single coin