Diwan al-Layla wal-Majnuun: a poetic tale of love by nashid fareed-ma'at - HTML preview

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22.

 

the horse penetrated the tide of the mountains

to burst full speed into the sea of the desert sands

open space

majnuun hugged the horse as it strode

renouncing the tragedy of the past few months

returning to something unknown yet familiar

 

surely the desert understood

what it meant to be betrayed

and moving through its silence

majnuun could feel the desert’s sympathy

 

when no one else understands you

you can come to cherish

the silent understanding of sand

 

as the horse began to tire, it slowed

majnuun sat up

yielding his sight to the expanse of the horizon

until two obscure figures caught his eye

prancing in a whimsical rhythm until

they suddenly stopped

 

fearing they might need help

majnuun steered the horse in that direction

as he neared the figures, the terrain dipped

as it rose again,

he saw a man with a dagger exposed

standing above two gazelles entrapped in a snare

 

the man’s hand was upon one of the gazelle’s necks

ready to slit its throat

“pause!”

yelled majnuun

“let them go

as one who has traveled from afar

you must entertain my request as your guest

consider them a meal well served to me

my greedy belly sated although they still

have their breath

thus, we can enjoy their beauty

and you spare yourself from sin

 

“oh, in their eyes i see

the gaze of my beloved

their flesh should be kissed

not cooked and chewed upon

let them go in peace

so their splendor may help fill

the vacancy of the earth

and touch your own heart with compassion”

 

the hunter was moved

he had never had such an encounter before

the idealism of the stranger’s words was alluring

but then the harshness of his circumstance

reclaimed the forefront of his mind

so he spoke

“what you say marvels me

but i am poor with a family

this being the only game

caught in over two moons

should my family continue to starve

for your beautiful thoughts”

 

instantly,

without thinking

majnuun dismounted his royal horse

and gave the reins to the hunter

“neither is this horse to be eaten

sell him for the life of these two gazelles

the price gained yours to keep in full”

 

the hunter smiled and rushed off with the horse

lest the foolish stranger change his mind

the royal horse was surely worth more

than two desert gazelles

 

majnuun bent by the gazelles

stroking their heads as he looked in their eyes

behold, within these spheres of sight

the velvet of the night within the sun’s light

oh, that i could evoke the eyes of my beloved

like i now witness your stares

touching the forehead of the first gazelle,

as if blessing it,

majnuun loosed it from the trap

it sprang a short distance away

looking back at its companion

majnuun blessed that one too

and then set it free

 

“if i cannot be free to be with my beloved

may you at least be free to live...”

 

with that

the two gazelles sped away

in their prance of liberty

 

majnuun continued on

into the depths of the sympathetic yet harsh desert

he took note of the irony

that the only place that understood him

was a place of such cruelty

the hot sand smoldering his feet

the beating sun darkening his hair and skin

the unrelenting haze of heat stealing

the moisture from his body

his consciousness becoming lost in the

indistinctness of the unending sands

until night fell

and he found a semblance of tenderness

with the cooling moon

silent and distant,

yet compassionate nonetheless

 

under the shade of the moon

he continued his voiceless renouncing, purging,

and releasing

of the tragedy of the past few months

a gradual relinquishment

like the present unhurried waning of the moon

❍ ● ❍