Layli and Majnun

  Of one who once had thought he could deceive her—

  When he’s not there, complaining, full of tears,

  Rubbing her eyes whenever he appears,

  Lamenting her virginity, grief-stricken

  By him whose painful presence made her sicken,

  Wanting to share her grief but well aware

  No friend was there to share in her despair;

  And sorrow hidden from the light of day

  Weakens the soul until it slinks away.

  *

  Shame mixed with pride, the grief she had to bear,

  Had made her thoughts as tangled as her hair;

  Like a lost stranger wandering round and round,

  A fallen tent-pole prone upon the ground,

  So vehemently, so copiously, she wept

  She fainted and lay still, as if she slept,

  And though shouts reached her ears she didn’t stir,

  But wept and moaned and nothing shifted her.

  Or sometimes she would sit and mask her tears

  As candles do when dripping wax appears,

  And then the flickering flame starts up and leaps

  Like laughter hiding tears the candle weeps.

  Her life seemed tasteless, saltless, but then heaven

  Rubbed salt into the wounds she had been given

  Until the skies’ relentless turning made her

  Show outwardly how heaven had betrayed her.

  *

  They stayed apart, and banished from her side

  Her husband longed to see his absent bride,

  Till Ebn Salam grew weak, then weaker still

  And it was clear that he had fallen ill.

  A fever gripped him and began to gain

  A gradual hold upon his ailing brain—

  The equilibrium in his body failed

  As bit by bit the malady prevailed.

  A doctor took his wavering pulse and checked

  His urine for some sign he could detect

  Of what was wrong, and by a wholesome diet,

  A regimen of self-control and quiet,

  Removed the weakness from his body till

  The rallied patient was no longer ill.

  But when his health revived at such a rate

  That his thin flesh began to put on weight,

  He broke his doctor’s rules and started to

  Do things his doctor said he shouldn’t do.

  (In sickness and in health, practice restraint,

  It isn’t good for only one complaint—

  In health it is your body’s firm foundation,

  In sickness it’s your cure and your salvation,

  A herb from which a thousand remedies

  Can be procured for mankind’s maladies,

  A village where a thousand walls protect

  The treasure of our health and self-respect.)

  While Ebn Salam was not yet well, he ended

  The treatment that the doctor’d recommended

  And cast restraint aside . . . his malady

  Returned, but with increased intensity,

  All of his sickly symptoms were renewed

  And strengthened by the course that he pursued.

  Water’d revived the rose, but now it made

  The flower rotten and its petals fade;

  An earthquake had occurred beneath the town

  And right and left high walls had tumbled down,

  And when the shaking started to redouble

  The shockwave buried him beneath the rubble.152

  For two or three more days the young man’s breath

  Came slowly, painfully, and presaged death,

  Until the wheezing tightened to a groan

  And broke like glass that’s shattered by a stone,

  And then it was as though his soul had waved

  The world farewell, and flown up, and was saved.

  He went, as all must go; the world’s brief loan

  Of life to us, it takes back as its own.

  Try to discharge this loan as capably

  As you are able to, and then fly free,

  Don’t sit and loiter in this mortal snare

  As if your body’s flesh were fastened there,

  But with your spirit break the cage and fly

  Like homing pigeons that traverse the sky.

  All of creation, and the world of men,

  Falls at death’s hand, never to rise again:

  Each morning fire falls from the heavenly hearth

  To burn the teeming harvest of the earth,

  Each night this muddy pit assails the dark

  With smoke that rises up to heaven’s arc;

  All of the world, a wise man realizes,

  Is a fire-temple,153 from which smoke arises.

  *

  Like a wild onager when it leaps free

  From where it’s languished in captivity,

  So Layli’s fractious heart leaped when she heard

  Her husband’s death had finally occurred.

  But though she was relieved that he was gone,

  He’d been her husband when all’s said and done

  And so she mourned for him, while secretly

  Her friend filled all her mind and memory.

  Cries for her husband’s death assailed the skies,

  Tears for her lover’s sorrows filled her eyes—

  She wept for his long absence while she mourned

  The passing of her husband whom she’d scorned.

  She named her husband in her wild lament

  But inwardly it was her friend she meant,

  And though she mourned her husband who had died,

  It was her friend for whom she moaned and cried—

  The shell bewailed her husband’s wretched end,

  The kernel grieved for her still-absent friend.

  The Arab custom was, a widow’s face

  Should not be seen in any public place—

  For two years she should stay at home, confined,

  Unseen, unseeing, cut off from mankind,

  And grieving spend her time secluded there,

  Repeating elegies or rapt in prayer.

  Layli made use of this excuse, and she

  Emptied her tent of guests and company

  To mourn her husband’s passing, as men thought.

  A different grief, though, made her wild, distraught—

  All patience left her, and her anguished cries

  Filled in their vehemence the seven skies,154

  She beat herself about the head as though

  Disdaining fear and danger with each blow.

  Zayd Tells Majnun of Layli’s Husband’s Death

  The bones of this beguiling tale contain

  Marrow its teller hastens to explain:

  *

  Although the two of them had had to part,

  Zayd longed for Zaynab still with all his heart,

  Though now he lived as far from her as he

  Earnestly hoped the evil eye would be.

  In place of water now he drank down sadness,

  Impatient with all patience, close to madness . . .

  His friends and relatives who knew his plight

  Longed to relieve him and to set things right,

  Thinking him worthy of his love who’d been

  Given to one whom she had never seen.

  Hoping they could undo the knot that hurt him

  Once Zaynab had no choice but to desert him,

  They found a way both secret and discreet

  To bring him to her, so that they could meet,

 
And so he went to her and cleansed the rust

  Staining the mirror of their mutual trust.155

  Breathless he breathed in silence to unclose

  The petals of this chaste unopened rose,

  And kindly, gently, then, her sweet lips kissed

  Zayd’s lips as they began their secret tryst,

  Questioning, talking, and content to be

  Simply in one another’s company,

  Careful to keep their talk and their desires

  Within the limits chastity requires.

  *

  Zayd was preoccupied, but still he’d find

  Thoughts of Majnun recurring in his mind—

  A hundred ways, a hundred times, he tried

  To help his friend the world had cast aside,

  And was so faithful in this role that he

  Became a byword for his loyalty.

  When Ebn Salam died, and his soul had flown

  Up from the earthly cage that it had known,

  Zayd set off like the wind to tell his friend

  All that he knew of Ebn Salam’s sad end,

  Of how death, like a servant at his side,

  Had handed him the draught from which he’d died.

  He said, “That bandit, that cruel highwayman

  Who raided and despoiled your caravan

  Of all you hoped for, is now dead and gone,

  And can’t obstruct the road you travel on;

  He’s dead, his life is yours, and may you live

  Blessed by these added years the heavens give!”156

  Majnun devoured this morsel, then he gazed

  In wonder at the heavens, as if amazed,

  And suddenly gave vent to deafening cries

  That stridently re-echoed in the skies.

  Death made him dance for joy, since death had brought

  The longed-for happiness for which he’d sought,

  And in his rival’s grave he thought he knew

  How all that he had dreamed of could come true.

  His heart rejoiced to think his rose would be

  Without a thorn, and set at liberty,

  But thinking of her state he soon perceived

  That she must grieve, as he too had once grieved—

  His nature bade him laugh, his intellect

  Commanded tears of sorrow and respect.

  And when he’d wept a while, he turned to Zayd

  As if to scold him for the part he’d played.

  He said, “Dear friend, you’ve sympathized with me,

  And suffered as you’ve shared my agony,

  But in my heart are words I have to say

  (I can’t suppress them, they won’t go away):

  This message that you gave, there’s something wrong there,

  You said a phrase that oughtn’t to belong there.

  You said that when that man you spoke of died,

  His life was mine, or that’s what you implied,

  But given that we’re friends you should have said

  His life was Layli’s life, once he was dead;

  In acting as our faithful messenger

  You gave to me what should belong to her.”

  Zayd said, “Do you remember when you found

  A piece of paper lying on the ground

  With both your names on it? And that you tore

  The paper in two equal halves and swore

  That when it came to Layli and to you

  You two were one and only one, not two?

  That was my meaning—if I went astray,

  Repentant, on bare feet, I’ll crawl away!”

  Majnun sprang up and clasped him to his chest

  And cried, “Of all my friends you are the best,

  Long may you live! Your kindly eloquence

  Is like a breeze that’s laden with sweet scents!

  You spoke well and you meant well, and I see

  You answered wisely and appropriately—

  Only a soul-mate speaks so aptly, none

  But you know all my secrets one by one

  And everything a soul-mate says, I swear

  Is licit in my heart and welcome there,

  And while I live I promise you I’ll want

  No man but you to be my confidant;

  Till death removes me, I won’t tug away

  My stubborn head from anything you say,

  Your words will nourish me, and I will view

  As blasphemy the thoughts I hide from you.”

  They lived together for a while, but then

  After a week, Zayd set off home again;

  Majnun sought out his old retreat, and stayed

  Within the mountain eyrie he had made.

  Layli Prays to God

  When jewelry made of pearls adorned the night,

  Making the darkness glitter with their light,

  Layli, the loveliest pearl, wept copious seas

  Of pearls as numerous as the Pleiades.157

  Companionless but for her torch’s light,

  Layli was there, with sorrow and the night;

  A fluttering moth left sleepless, she inveighed

  Against the night that never seemed to fade:

  “Why is this night so endless,” she demanded,

  “As though the forehead of the sky were branded?

  What boundless night is this, that it should be

  Both fated for me, and the death of me?

  How in this constant darkness can I strive

  For ways to keep my wretched soul alive?

  You’d say its anguish makes me faint with fear,

  Or that God’s final Judgment Day was here—

  I’m stranded in this dayless night, oh may

  This night at last convert itself to day!

  I’m like a gardener who can’t see the wall

  Around her garden has begun to fall,

  Or that the flowers she grew have disappeared

  Or that her precious orchard has been cleared.

  The rooster might be dead, but still the skies

  Must lighten when the sun begins to rise;

  And if the rooster’s dead, as we suggested,

  And if the street’s mu’ezzin’s been arrested,

  But still we ought to hear the morning drum

  Announcing that at last the dawn has come!158

  O God, bring me that torch whose blazing fire159

  Has branded me with sigils of desire;

  He lightens all the world, but tell him he

  Must drive this smothering darkness back from me.”

  She did not cease this prayer until dawn’s light

  Began to glimmer and dispel the night.

  Layli and Majnun Come Together Again

  As daybreak’s noble sovereign sat alone

  And splendid on the morning’s gleaming throne,

  His shining presence made the heavens bright

  And touched the far horizons with his light,

  So that the day seemed more resplendent than

  A thousand celebrations known to man;

  The heavens promised joy throughout the day

  And sounds of grief and sorrow died away.

  But Layli, filled with longing for Majnun

  And moving slowly like the heavenly moon,

  Wandered at will, and did not try to hide

  The yearning sorrow that she felt inside.

  She’d always followed where her husband went,

  Now she no longer needed his assent;

  There’d been a watchman watching at her door

  But no one watched her doorway any more.

  H
er heart all fire that nothing could assuage,

  She had no fear now of her parents’ rage,

  Her eyes all tears, she walked through many places,

  Mountains and streets and valleys and oases,

  Seeking her heart, giving her message to

  Strangers she met whose hearts she never knew,

  Acting with constant kindness everywhere,

  Her fragrant scent diffusing in the air,

  Always, in every place, and without end,

  She sought, in all the world, her one true friend.

  *

  After her husband’s funeral, she’d returned

  To where her father lived, with all she’d learned.

  The glass was shattered and the wine was gone,

  The rose had withered now, and she moved on—

  Her love was something she’d no longer hide,

  And casting all her modesty aside,

  She locked the door of her old life as she

  Opened the unlocked door that set her free,

  And didn’t rest but thought up clever schemes

  To give her strength to realize all her dreams,

  And soon she asked for Zayd to visit her

  And once more be her trusted messenger.

  She said, “Today is not a day for hiding,

  It is a day for finding and deciding,

  A day for being with that friend whose love

  I’ll always want and never weary of.

  Go now, the world is sweet, bring sugar here,

  Mix it with roses as love’s elixir,

  Have that tall cypress tree lie down beside

  This humble grass, abandoning his pride,

  Bring whitest jasmine here, so that it may

  Be mixed with tulips to make one bouquet.

  Capture for me that gracious deer and see

  You bring his musky fragrance here to me;

  His hide will be my silk, dust on his hooves

  Will be the only scent I’ll ever use.

  A kindly friend is someone whom I’ve never

  Shared sighs with, but we’ll sigh our sighs together—

  Before death sets his ambush, let me see

  The longed-for friend’s face here, in front of me.”

  *

  And saying this she handed gifts to Zayd,

  Sables, and clothes of silk and fine brocade,

  As generous as a queen, she passed on all

  The presents she considered suitable.

  Zayd was so pleased to take them, filled with pride,

  He seemed to rear up like a mountainside,

  And set off for the doorless cavern where

  That wingless bird Majnun had made his lair;