Layla and Majnun by Nizami

had been sleeping, a dark shadow arrested his gaze. There, motionless in the greenery, sat a huge, coal-black raven, its eyes glittering like diamonds.
    He, too, has donned his mourning robes, thought Majnun. Like me, he has taken to the wilderness to be alone with his grief. Majnun cleared his throat and called out to the bird, ‘Hey, you with the black cloak! Whom do you mourn? Why do you wear the colours of night in the full light of day? Tell me, are you grieving on my account?’  
    Starting at this sudden cry, the bird hopped on to another branch, its lamp-like eyes fixed on Majnun. Majnun continued, ‘If you, like me, are one of those whose hearts have been torn in two by love, why do you shun me? Or maybe you are dressed in black because you are a preacher, ready to mount the pulpit in order to deliver your sermon. Is that it?
    ‘Then again, it could be that you are a Negro guard, here to watch my every move. If that be the case, why are you afraid? Perhaps I am a King and you are the knight sent to protect me.
    ‘Whatever you are, listen well: if, while you are on the wing, you should meet the one I love, tell her this from me.’
    And Majnun began to recite:
    Rescue me from this well of loneliness,
    For my life’s light fades in this wilderness.
    ‘Don’t be afraid, for I am yours!’ you said;
    If that be true, come now — or let them find
    me dead.
    Once trapped, the dying lamb hears all too late
    The heartfelt cries of ‘Wolf!’ that would prevent
    its fate.
    As Majnun came to the end of his verse, the raven hopped further and further away to the tip of the branch. Then, with a frenzied flapping of wings, he took off from the crown of the palm and soared away. Soon he had vanished from sight, swallowed up by the encroaching blackness of night.
    The day was done; the night had come. Bats wheeled and swooped as twilight faded and darkness swelled. Soon the sky was darker than a raven’s coat; indeed, the night itself was like a raven, ink-black and foreboding. And as the monstrous bird of night spread its wings across the heavens, diamond-like eyes stared down once more at Majnun — now he saw not a singlepair but a hundred thousand, large and small, near and far, shining in cold splendour above his head. To escape their gaze, Majnun covered his face with his hands.
    Then, he sat down and wept.

Chapter 25
    T he morning light was like a sharp knife, cutting through the veil of night. Slowly the old earth found new life again, born afresh like a vast flower emerging from the bud.
    Majnun rushed onwards, his feet scarcely touching the ground. It was as though he had suddenly sprouted wings and could fly; he was like a moth that dances through the darkness towards the flame it wishes to make its own. But Majnun was aflame before he had reached the candle of his desires; his separation from Layla was a pain that he could no longer bear; it was a fire that had consumed his very being.
    The nearer he came to his goal, the more intoxicated his soul became with Layla’s scent, the more distinctly his ears seemed to hear her voice, the more clearly his eyes perceived her image in everythinghe saw — in the mountains, the valleys, the rocks, the shifting sands.
    Before long, he had become so fatigued that he was forced to stop for rest. Within minutes, he felt as though he was a corpse now resurrected: with every breath, every sigh, he felt the life force stream back into his tired limbs.
    He had not been resting long when he saw two figures approaching. A man, chained and bound, his emaciated body clad in filthy rags and his hair and beard dishevelled, was being dragged along by a woman. The wretched captive was clearly out of his mind; every now and then the woman would yank his chains and beat him with her stick, hurrying him along like some worn-out beast of burden, causing him to yell out in distress.
    Deeply shocked at the spectacle, Majnun ran forward to the couple and made a grab for the woman’s