Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand Part 21

CALIPH Thou hast metaphysic, but hast thou logic? Invent me a reason-- one small and subtle reason--why I should show mercy to this man.

PERVANEH Ah--wilt thou have reasons?

CALIPH Was not my sentence just?

PERVANEH Wilt thou have justice?

CALIPH If I had stood bound before him, would he have listened to my prayer?

PERVANEH Wilt thou have revenge?

CALIPH Shall I scorn reason, pervert justice, and put aside revenge-- for thy dark eyes?

PERVANEH Turn thy justice, turn thy revenge on me in the name of the dark eyes of G.o.d! They say a woman suffers longer and sharper than a man.

CALIPH Lady, dost thou mean this with all its meaning, or say it to implore pity?

Beware of thy answer! The rack and the whip are ready and near at hand.

PERVANEH (Her arms outstretched) Then give the word. Knock off those fetters before my eyes--and nail me to the wall.

RAFI Pervaneh!

CALIPH Ecstasy! Ecstasy! Thou art an ecstatic and wilt not suffer.

I know the thick skin of martyrs. I refuse.

PERVANEH (To RAFI) Alas, what can I do!

RAFI Let me die! I have seen you again. It is nothing for a man to die.

PERVANEH Nothing for a man to die? 'Tis Heaven wide open for a man to die.

But they will tear you, Rafi, Rafi!

RAFI Shall I fear the pain you called upon yourself, or shrink where you were brave?

PERVANEH (To the CALIPH) I ask so small a boon. Grant my lover a clean death!

CALIPH Thou dost ask a very great boon indeed. For as thou sayest, what is death?

Shall the man who shakes my kingdom slip into eternity like a thief men catch in the bazaar? Shall he who does the greater wrong not suffer the greater pain?

PERVANEH He is not afraid of pain.

CALIPH That is not to say he feels not pain.

PERVANEH Just and reasonable, yet there is a holier thing than reason and justice.

DERVISH (His orthodoxy disturbed) A holier thing than justice?

PERVANEH Yes, Dervish. There is that which should not be defiled.

CALIPH Whither now does thy plea wander?

PERVANEH O Father of Islam, can thine eyes that love flowers behold man's body hewn into foul shapes and monstrous as the phantoms that go wailing round the graves? Can thy ears that love the music of Ishak, listen to the gasps of the tormented droning through their bodies like a winter wind among the pines?

CALIPH I shall not honour Rafi with my attendance: I shall be far from sight and sound.

PERVANEH The thought of it--the thought of it!

CALIPH I have been ordering executions all my life. There is only one thought that can haunt me--the thought of a coffin closing on open eyes, the sway of the coffin carried to the grave, the crash at the bottom of the pit, the rumble of earth on the lid, the gasping for breath and light.

PERVANEH He was distraught by pa.s.sion, he spoke in fury: but thou dost judge him with a quiet mind. He is a man among men, but thou art the representative of G.o.d on earth, the sole Priest of Islam.

Thou shalt not order G.o.d's image to be defiled.

CALIPH So you would have me spare him for the sake of the perfection of man's body? O Pervaneh, I am far more likely to spare him for the perfection of woman's.

PERVANEH (Shrinking from the implied menace) For those that have wits, O Master, perfection is sundered from desire.

CALIPH You are a woman--perfect--but a woman.

PERVANEH By the curse of G.o.d.

CALIPH And however much you sunder perfection from desire, from desire your perfection is not sundered.

PERVANEH I am the slave of thy household to come or go, to fetch or to carry, to be struck or slain; but my perfection is not the slave of your desire.

CALIPH (Softly) Yet if you return to my household...

PERVANEH (In fury) To die.

CALIPH You would not be forgotten or neglected...and your presence would be a consolation and a charm....

PERVANEH Not to you, frigid tyrant, not to you!

CALIPH (Softly) Nor yet to the one who let your lover go in peace?

PERVANEH Is there no shame in the world of Islam? Will you unclothe your l.u.s.t in full Divan?

CALIPH You have already given the example. Come, shall I set your lover free?

PERVANEH I would choke if you touched me, I would choke. Oh, the shame on me, the shame! You are smiling. It is not me you want but my shame!

Is there a G.o.d in heaven that lets you sit and smile! But you can set him free. Ah, will you set him free? I am your slave--I am your slave.

You can rob me of rope and knife--the very means of death.

If you will set him free! I am your slave, what choice have I?

CALIPH Thou hast not the manners or the heart of a slave. Thou wast brought to my household by violence, a free woman born, and art no slave of mine.

In the presence of my Divan I p.r.o.nounce thee free. Thou art free to come and free to go, free to buy and free to sell, free to walk out or free to stay, free to wed and free to die-- and free to make a choice....

PERVANEH To make a choice? What choice? Between his death and my dishonour?

CALIPH No, between love and life.