Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand Part 24

RAFI The plague on your dishonour! You are to be the Caliph's wife.

Is that not held for the highest honour to which a woman can attain?

Is that worse shame than being flayed by a foul negro? The shame!

the selling! the dishonour! A woman's vanity: am I to be tortured to death to gratify your pride? If I must not have you, do I care whose wife you are? I shall remember you as you are now-- rock water undefiled.

PERVANEH Cold and heartless coward; you are afraid of death!

RAFI By Allah, I am afraid of death, and the man who fears not death is a dullard and a fool! Are we still making speeches in full Divan to the admiration of the by-standers? Must we pose even now!

If you hate me for fearing death, go your way and leave this coward.

Ah, no, no, do not leave me, O Pervaneh! Forgive me that I am what I am.

I have not unsaid my promise. I will die with you. I will die!

I will endure the tortures that are thrice as terrible as death, the tortures that parch my mouth with fear.

PERVANEH Shame on you, weak and s.h.i.+vering lover! What is pain for us?

RAFI You do not see--you do not see! Look at your hands, they shall be torn-- ah, I cannot speak of it. I shall see your blood flow like wine from a white fountain drop by drop till you have painted the carpet of execution all red lilies.

PERVANEH Ah--but will not even your poor love flow deep when I set that crimson seal upon the story of our lives!

RAFI Alas, you are still dreaming: you are still blind with exaltation: your speech is a metaphor. You do not see, you have never heard the high, thin shriek of the tortured, you have not seen the shape of their bodies when they are cast into the ditch. Come near, Pervaneh.

Do you know what they will do to you? Come near: I cannot say it aloud.

(PERVANEH approaches.) Ah, I dare not tell you...I dare not tell you!

PERVANEH Tell me, plain and clear.

RAFI (Whispers in PERVANEH's ear)...

PERVANEH (Covering her face with her hands) Ah, G.o.d--they will not do that!

No, no; they will not do that to me.

RAFI Pitilessly.

PERVANEH (Wildly) They will do that!--Ah, the shame of it! They will do that-- Ah the pain of it! I see! I feel! I hear! O save me, Rafi!

RAFI Alas! Why did I tell you this?

PERVANEH It is beyond endurance: it is foul: my veins will burst at the very thought.

I am between a shame and a shame and there is no escape....But at least they shall not do this to you, Rafi. Hush...talk low: the soldiers must not hear. (Glancing at the GUARDs and whispering low) Will you die here between my hands, instantly, and with no pain?

RAFI (In a hushed voice) Quickly! How can you do it? We are guarded-- have you a knife?

PERVANEH My hands will be cunning round your neck, beloved. Did I not say you should die between my hands?

RAFI Be quick: be quiet: I will cast back my head.

A GUARD (Thrusting PERVANEH back with his drawn sword as she lays her hands on her lover's neck) Back, in the Caliph's name!

RAFI (To PERVANEH) Run in upon his sword....

PERVANEH (Shrinking away from the GUARD's sword) I cannot!

RAFI Quick--quick! Fall on the sword and save all shame.

PERVANEH My breast, my breast: I am afraid...(Prostrate on the ground) I am utterly shamed--I have missed your death and mine.

RAFI You have flinched.

PERVANEH The point was on my breast, and it might have been all ended for you and me.

RAFI You have been afraid.

PERVANEH It would have driven to my heart. Ah, the woman that I am!

RAFI It is so small a thing, a p.r.i.c.king of the steel.

PERVANEH Ah!--it is a little thing, you say? It is like ice, so sharp and cold.

I am a vile coward.

RAFI We are both cowards, you and I. The sunlight changes on the wall from white to gold. It is evening. Our time has come.

Shall we choose life? Shall we choose the sky and the sea, the mountains, the rivers and the plains? Shall we choose the flowers and the bees, and all the birds of heaven?

Shall we choose laughter and tears, sorrow and desire, speech and silence, and the shout of the man behind the hill?

PERVANEH Ah, empty, empty without your heart! (She weeps.)

RAFI Empty as death, Pervaneh, empty as death?

PERVANEH The wall reddens: the last minute has come: we must choose.

RAFI Choose for me: I follow. Did I talk of life? My heart is breaking for desire of you. If you bid me depart I will not live without you.

Choose for me--and choose well. Phantoms of pain! Let me but have you in my arms, and one day of love shall widen into eternity.

Who knows? The earth may crack to-night, or the sun stay down for ever in his grave. Who knows--tomorrow--G.o.d will begin and finish the judgment of the world--and when it is all over find you sleeping in my arms?

PERVANEH (Rising slowly to her feet and laying her hands on the shoulders of her lover): Oh, let us die! Not for my dishonour, Rafi.

What is my dishonour to me or to you, beloved, or the shame of a girl's virginity to him who made the sea? This clay of mine is fair enough, I think, but G.o.d hath cast it in the common mould.

O lover, lover, I would walk beneath the walls and sell my body to the gipsy and the Jew ere you should cry "I am hungry"

or "I am cold."

RAFI Die for love of me--for a day and a night of love!

PERVANEH I die for love of you, Rafi! Behold, the Spirit grows bright around you: you are one with the Eternal Lover, the Friend of the World.

His spirit flashes in thine eyes and hovers round thy lips: thy body is all fire!

RAFI Comfort me, comfort me! I do not understand thy dreams.

PERVANEH (Her arms stiffening in ecstasy) The splendour pours from the window-- the spirits in red and gold. Death with thee, O lover, death for thee, death to attain thee, O lover--and then the garden--then the fountain-- then the walking side by side.

RAFI O my sweet life, O my sweet life--must this mad dreaming end thee?

PERVANEH Sweet life--we die for thy sweetness, O Lord of the Garden of Peace.

Come, love, and die for the fire that beats within us, for the air that blows around us, for the mountains of our country and the wind among their pines you and I accept torture and confront our end.