Colin Turner

Niẓāmī Ganjavī

Nizami

The text is a prose rendition of Nizami's 12th-century poetic masterpiece, in which he reshapes the legends of Majnun, the quintessential romantic fool, into a tale of the ideal lover. For the Sufis, Majnun represents the perfect devotee of the "religion of the heart," and the story is an allegory of the soul's longing for God. This is a beautiful production, and it includes a final chapter newly translated from the Persian by Omid Safi and Zia Inayat Khan.

Layla and Majnun

remiel

I lost everything because I lost you, for you are my everything.

‘Dearest heart, if I had not given my soul to you, it would have been better to give it up for good, to lose it for ever. I am burning in love’s fire; I am drowning in the tears of my sorrow. Even the sun that lights up the world can feel the heat of my desire. I am the moth that flies through the night to flutter around the candle flame. O invisible candle of my soul, do not torture me as I encircle you! You have bewitched me, you have robbed me of my sleep, my reason, my very being.

‘You are the cause of my pain, yet the love I feel for you is my only consolation, my only cure. How strange, a cure that brings even greater pain!

If only you could send me a sign! If only the wind could touch your lips and bring your kisses to me, but then I should be jealous of the wind and ashamed of myself for asking.

Why was Fate so unkind? His heart had been wrecked like a ship caught in a storm; what was left of him now drifted at the mercy of the waves.

Is it not madness to burn at all times like a candle? Is it not madness, this inability to eat or sleep? The more he searched for a cure, the worse became the pain.

Caution is no chain for a heart that is already chained by its lover’s beauty. What was Kais to do? His soul was a mirror for Layla’s radiance: how could he keep such a reflection to himself? She shone in him like the sun at noon in a cloudless sky: how could such light be concealed? How could he turn away, even for a second, from the only thing that gave meaning to his life?

He was drowning in a sea of love before he even knew what love was. He had given his heart to the girl before he had even realised what it was that he was giving away.

When goals are not reached and prayers not answered, do we ever stop to think that God’s apparent silence may be for our own good?

Layla and Majnun

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