Layla and Majnun Read Online Free Page B

banish their doubts, he turned to them and said, ‘I do not expect you to understand what I say, for you have no idea how I suffer. So leave me, let me go. And do not try to find me, for your search will be in vain. How will you find me when I am lost, even to myself? Go now, for I cannot bear your torture and oppression any longer. Leave me alone with my grief. There is no need to escort me out of the town, for I shall go of my own accord. Farewell!’
    But Majnun no longer had the strength to move. Instead, he fell to his knees in the dust, as though in prayer, and began to implore his beloved to help him.
    ‘Layla, I have fallen. I have fallen and I do not know what to do. Come, dearest heart, and take my hand. Reach out and touch me, for I can bear this loneliness no longer. I am yours, so come and take me: I am more use to you alive than dead. Be kind and give me some sign; send some message to revive my soul. Why don’t you come? Why have they imprisoned you when it is I, the madman, who should be in chains? Come and enslave me, my love! Do something, for the love of God! To live like this is worse than death: come and end this torture now! Things cannot remain as they are; it is not right that you should sit there and do nothing. Have you no pity? No, it would seem that youdo not. After all, those who are in comfort have no feeling for those who are in misery. What do the rich know about poverty? What does the full stomach care about those who starve? We are both human beings: does our common humanity mean nothing to you? Are you content to blossom and bloom while I wither and die?
    ‘You have the power to bring peace to my soul, yet you withhold it. What have I done to deserve this? Why, not content with stealing my heart, do you rob me of my sanity? Apart from the fact that I love you, what sin have I committed that I should be treated in this way?
    ‘I am not asking for much: even one night — one night out of a thousand nights — will do. Apart from the love I feel for you, I have nothing: everything else I have abandoned, gambled away and lost.
    ‘Please, I beg you, do not reject me. If you are angry with me, extinguish your wrath with my tears. Dearest heart, you are the new moon and I am a star that has fallen to earth out of longing for you. I am alone and friendless: my only companion is my shadow, and even with him I dare not speak the truth about my love for you, lest he become jealous and try to take you from me. What can I do? Can I hope? A man dying of thirst dreams of cool, clear streams, but when he wakes there is only sand. But what does it all matter? Whatever happens to me, nothing can destroy the love I feel for you in my heart. It is indeed a mystery, a riddle, a lock without a key, a book that cannot be opened, a code that no one can crack. Lovefor you is part of me: it entered my veins along with the milk from my mother’s breast, and it will leave me only when my soul departs my body. Of that I am certain.’
    As his voice trailed away, Majnun’s legs gave way and he fell forward into the dust. Those who had been listening rushed forward to help him; gently, they lifted him up and carried him home to his father’s tent.
    Time passes, but true love remains. The life of this world is, for the most part, nothing but a succession of illusions and deceptions. But true love is real, and the flames which fuel it burn forever, without beginning or end. And thus, Majnun became famous throughout the land as a lover, for the fire of true love burned in his soul like a blazing torch as long as he lived.

Chapter 8
    M ajnun’s passion grew with each passing day, and as it grew, so his reputation among family and friends declined accordingly.
    But his close relatives, and especially his dear father, the old Sayyid, had not given up hope completely. They knew that the darkest hour is always before dawn, and that with love and patience it still might be possible to save the boy. Once more, the old