Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand | Page 7

enchant the dropping
stones? Ah, Yasmin? (Taking a lute from beneath his cloak and a
tuning it.) Yasmin...Yasmin...Yasmin...Yasmin.
(Intones to the accompaniment of the lute.)
How splendid in the morning glows the lily; with what grace he throws
His supplication to the rose: do roses nod the head, Yasmin? But when
the silver dove descends I find the little flower of friends, Whose very
name that sweetly ends, I say when I have said, Yasmin. The morning
light is clear and cold; I dare not in that light behold A whiter light, a
deeper gold, a glory too far shed, Yasmin. But when the deep red eye of
day is level with for the lone highway, And some to Mecca turn to pray,
and I toward thy bed, Yasmin, Or when the wind beneath the moon is
drifting like a soul aswoon, And harping planets talk love's tune with
milky wings outspread, Yasmin, Shower down thy love, O burning
bright! for one night or the other night Will come the Gardener in white,
and gathered flower are dead, Yasmin!
(As HASSAN intones the last "Yasmin" with passion the shutters open,
and YASMIN, veiled, looks out.)
YASMIN Alas, Minstrel, Yasmin is my name also, but it was for a
fairer Yasmin than me, I fear, you have strung these pearls.
HASSAN There is no Yasmin but Yasmin, and you are Yasmin.
YASMIN Can this be Hassan, the Confectioner?
HASSAN I am Hassan, and I am a confectioner.
YASMIN Mashallah, Hassan, your words are sweeter than your sweets.
HASSAN Gracious lady, your eyes look down through your veil like
angels through a cloud. Dare I ask to see your face, O bright
perfection?
YASMIN (Roguishly) Do you take me for a Christian, father of
impertinence? And since when do the daughters of Islam unveil before
strangers?
HASSAN It is said: he who speaks to the heart is no stranger.

YASMIN (Unveiling her eyes) Are you satisfied, O importunate!
HASSAN Never, till I have seen perfection to perfection.
YASMIN You would shrivel, my poet. What about "the glory too far
shed, Yasmin"?
HASSAN Let me see you unveiled, Yasmin.
YASMIN Anything to close the portal of your face. (Unveiling.) There.
Do I please thee, my Sultan?
HASSAN (Rapturously) Oh, you are beautiful!
YASMIN Prince of poets, is that all you have to say! Not a stanza, not
a trope, not a turn, not a twist, not even a hint that the heavens are
opened, or that there are two moons in the sky together?
HASSAN There is but one.
YASMIN Well confectioned, my confectioner! And now, Good-night.
HASSAN O stay, Yasmin, you are too beautiful, and I too bold. I am
nothing, and you are the Queen of the Stars of Night. But the thought of
you is twisted in the strings of my heart; I burn with love of you,
Yasmin. Put me to the proof, my lady; there was nothing I could not do
for your bright eyes. I would cross the salt desert and wrest a cup of the
water of life from the Jinn that guards it; I would walk to the barriers of
the world and steal the roc's egg from its diamond nest. I would swim
the seven oceans, and cross the five islands to rob Solomon ben Dawud
of his ring in the palace where he lies sleeping in the silence and
majesty of uncorrupting death. And I would slip the ring on your finger
and make you mistress of the spirits of the air-- but would you love me?
Could you love me, do you love me, Yasmin?
YASMIN There is love and love and love.
HASSAN (Passionately) Oh, answer me!
YASMIN I think I have been enchanted, Hassan; how, I cannot tell.
Till this afternoon the thought of your appearance made my heart
narrow with disgust. But since I ate your present of comfits-- and they
were admirable comfits, and I ate them with speed-- my heart is
changed and inclined toward you, I know not why or how, except it be
through magic.
HASSAN (Aside) She is mine, and magic rules the world! (Aloud)
Yasmin, shall I possess you, O Yasmin?
YASMIN Am I not the desert waiting for the rain? Was I not born for
passion, Hassan? Is not my bosom burning for kisses? Were not these

arms made smooth and hard to fight the battle of love?
HASSAN Are not your lips love's roses, your cheeks love's lilies, your
eyes love's hyacinths?
YASMIN Ya, Hassan, and my hair the net of love, and my girdle the
chain of love that breaks at a lovers touch?
HASSAN I am drowning in a wave of madness. Let me in, Yasmin; let
me in!
YASMIN Ah, if I could!
HASSAN Why not?
YASMIN Ah, if I