Layla and Majnun by Nizami

Author:Nizami [Colin Turner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781857826104
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

Majnun knew nothing of Layla’s marriage to Ibn Salam; even after an entire year had passed, he was none the wiser. Love had turned him into a blind and drunken nomad, stumbling from place to place with no idea where he was going. Sorrow had emaciated him and sallowed his skin, and he grew worse by the hour. But for a sickness such as his — the sickness of love — there was no cure.

One evening saw him lying, exhausted as always, beneath the overhanging blossoms of a thorn-bush. He did not see the rider approach him, nor did he hear the rider’s camel, until he was almost upon him. The rider, a swarthy man in a coal-black cloak, dismounted and stood towering above Majnun like some monstrous black demon. His voice was as intimidating as his appearance. He kicked Majnun in the shin and boomed:

‘Hey, you there! Your idolatry has cut you off from the world and left you unaware of what is happening. But let me tell you this: you have dedicated your heart to Layla in vain. You idiot! Did you really expect her to remain faithful? Did you really think that she would wait? Do you still hope for light where there is only darkness?

‘How you fool yourself! The shining beacon of innocence and love that you think you perceive from afar is but an illusion, a trick of the light. Her love for you exists only in your imagination; in her eyes you are nothing!’

Majnun opened his mouth to speak but the stranger cut in, louder and more harshly this time.

‘You poor misguided fool! Don’t you realise that she has deceived you? You have given your heart to her, and she has given her heart to the enemy!

‘She has forgotten you, Majnun, and she has scattered her memories of you to the wind. For she has been given in marriage to another man — a marriage that she was only too glad to accept. Now her thoughts are all for him, for his kisses, his lovemaking, the warmth of his loving arms, the hardness of his rugged body, the beauty of his hidden treasure!

‘She is forever lost in thoughts of pleasures of the flesh while you are lost in your own grief and suffering. Can that be right? Can that be fair?

‘Look at the ever-widening gulf that separates you and judge for yourself: why should you go on caring for her when it is clear that she no longer cares for you?’

Majnun felt as though a thousand serpents had buried their fangs in his soul. He opened his mouth to cry out for mercy, but the black demon continued.

‘Women are women, Majnun. Did you really expect her to be any different? They are all alike, fickle and capricious, two-faced and duplicitous. She is like the rest of her sex, and the rest of her sex are like her.

‘Yesterday, you were a hero in her eyes; today, you are the devil in disguise! Yesterday, you were her everything; today, you are nothing.

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