Free Layla and Majnun by Nizami Page A

he had disappeared completely from the face of the earth. It was as if his name had been erased from the book of life. Gradually, Nowfal came to the painful conclusion that he had lost his friend for ever.

Chapter 22
    H aving left Nowfal, Majnun was like a motherless child. He mounted his horse and galloped off deep into the desert, the wind his only companion now. In a voice cracked by grief, he sang to himself of Nowfal’s infidelity, recounting his fate to the abandoned camp-fires and deserted caravanserais as he went.
    Suddenly, he saw something moving in the distance; as he approached he saw that it was two gazelles, caught in a trap. And there was a hunter standing above them, his dagger drawn, ready for the kill. Majnun felt the anger rise in his chest.
    ‘Let those poor beasts alone!’ he cried. ‘I am a stranger to these parts and so I am your guest here; it is not fitting for a host to refuse the request of those who call on him! Now, remove the nooses from their necksand set them free! Is there not room enough in this world for all of God’s creatures? What is their crime, that you are ready to slaughter them? Look how elegant they are, how beautifully they have been created! Do they not remind you of spring itself? Do their soulful eyes not remind you of the eyes of your beloved?
    ‘Let them go! Leave them alone to live in peace! Their necks are too fine to suffer the blows of your sword; their breasts and thighs were not created to fill your pot; their backs, which have never carried any load, are surely not destined for the fire! Let them go, I beg you!’
    The hunter stood back, astonished. Never in his life had he heard a plea for clemency so impassioned, so noble. Still shaking his head in disbelief, he said, ‘Well, what can I say? I understand your point of view and I agree with you.
    ‘But I am a poor man; were it not for my poverty, I would never stoop to slaughtering God’s creatures. But this is the first catch I have had in two months. I have a wife and several small mouths to feed. Am I to sacrifice the well-being of my family for the freedom of a few animals?’
    Majnun dismounted and, with not so much as a word, handed the reins of his horse to the hunter. Perplexed by Majnun’s behaviour, but more than happy with the exchange, the hunter rode off, leaving Majnun to untie the fettered gazelles. Tenderly he took them out of the trap, stroked their necks and kissed their eyes, saying:
    I see her eyes in yours, darker than night;
    Yet mere likeness cannot restore her to my sight.
    For what I have lost no one can return,
    And all that is left are the memories that burn …
    Invoking God’s blessings on the animals, he released them and watched as they trotted off across the sands. Then he continued on his way, only at a much slower pace this time, bent almost double by the weight of his grief and his few possessions.
    The sun beat him mercilessly about the head with her burning stick, while the sand roasted his feet. His skin was scorched, his brain seemed to be on the boil, his feet were blistered and shredded by thorns, but he carried on unperturbed. He carried on until the night threw its indigo cloak over the earth, and the moon, borrowing the sun’s light, became a huge all-seeing eye in the sky above. Only then did he rest.
    Panting and groaning, he crept into a cave and made a bed with his old shawl for a blanket and a rock for a pillow. Then he lay down and, struggling for sleep, he read awhile from the book of his own life, the pages of which were blacker than night itself.

Chapter 23
    A s morning unfurled her banner of light and the sun scorched a hole in night’s coal-black veil, the sleep demons unchained Majnun’s mind and returned it to him, allowing him to wake.
    Rubbing his eyes, he emerged from the cave and continued on his way, composing his odes and his quatrains and singing them aloud to himself and the desert.
    Towards evening, Majnun came across another hunter. The