Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand Part 28

FOUNTAIN GHOST When the water turned from white to red their faces turned from red to white. They ran!

GHOST HIDDEN IN THE TREES Ha! ha!

GHOST OF PERVANEH Tell us, O Man of the Fountain, what shall we do?

FOUNTAIN GHOST Nothing: you are dead.

GHOST OF PERVANEH Shall we stay in this garden and be lovers still, and fly in the air and flit among the leaves?

FOUNTAIN GHOST As long as you remember what you suffered, you will stay near the house where your blood was shed.

GHOST OF PERVANEH We will remember that ten thousand years.

FOUNTAIN GHOST You have forgotten that you are a Spirit.

The memories of the dead are thinner than their dreams.

GHOST OF PERVANEH But you stay here, by the fountain.

FOUNTAIN GHOST I created the fountain: what have you created in the world?

GHOST OF PERVANEH Nothing but the story of our lives.

FOUNTAIN GHOST That will not save you. You were spiritual even in life.

I see it by the great shadows of your eyes.

But I cared only for the earth. I loved the veins of the leaves, the shapes of crawling beasts, the puddle in the road, the feel of wood and stone. I knew the shapes of things so well that my sculpture was the best in the world. Therefore my spirit is still heavy with memories of earth and I stay in the world I love.

Do I desire to see the back of the moon?

GHOST OF PERVANEH May not we stay also? May I not touch the shadow of his lips and hear the whisper of his love? Shall we be driven from here, O Man of the fountain?

FOUNTAIN GHOST How do I know? Can I foresee?

GHOST OF PERVANEH Thou, too dost not foresee. But what of Paradise, what of Infinity-- what of the stars, and what of us?

FOUNTAIN GHOST I know no more than you.

GHOST OF PERVANEH Is the secret secret still, and this existence darker than the last?

FOUNTAIN GHOST Didst thou hope for a revelation? Why should the dead be wiser than the living? The dead know only this--that it was better to be alive.

GHOST OF PERVANEH But we shall feel no more pain--Oh, no more pain, Rafi!

FOUNTAIN GHOST But you will feel so cold.

GHOST OF PERVANEH With the fire of love within us?

FOUNTAIN GHOST You will forget when the wind blows.

GHOST OF PERVANEH Forget! Rafi, Rafi, shall we forget, Rafi?

GHOST OF RAFI (In a thin voice like an echo) Forget...Rafi...

FOUNTAIN GHOST You will forget, when the great wind blows you asunder and you are borne on it with ten million others like drops on a wave of air.

GHOST OF PERVANEH There is a faith in me that tells I shall not forget my lover though G.o.d forget the world. And where will the wind take us?

FOUNTAIN GHOST What do I know, or they? I only know it rushes.

GHOST OF PERVANEH How do you know about the wind?

FOUNTAIN GHOST Because it blows through the garden and drives the souls together.

GHOST OF PERVANEH What souls?

FOUNTAIN GHOST The souls of the unborn children who live in the flowers.

GHOST OF PERVANEH And how do you know about the pa.s.sage of ten million souls?

FOUNTAIN GHOST They pa.s.s like a comet across the midnight skies.

GHOST OF PERVANEH Phantoms shall not make me fear. But what of Justice and Punishment and Reason and Desire? What of the Lover in the Garden of Peace?

FOUNTAIN GHOST Ask of the wind.

GHOST OF PERVANEH I shall be answered: I know that in the end I shall find the Lover in the Garden of Peace.

VOICES And what of Life?

GHOST OF PERVANEH Who asks, What of Life?

FOUNTAIN GHOST The spirits of those who will soon be born.

VOICES We have left our flowers. We know we shall soon be born.

What of Life, O dead?

GHOST OF PERVANEH (With a great cry) Why, Life...is sweet, my children!

(The leaves of the trees begin to rustle.)

FOUNTAIN GHOST Listen to the tress.

GHOST OF PERVANEH Is it coming?

FOUNTAIN GHOST It is the wind. I must go down into the earth.

(The FOUNTAIN GHOST vanishes.)

GHOST OF PERVANEH Ah, I am cold--I am cold--beloved!

GHOST OF RAFI (Scarce visible and very faint) Cold...cold.