Hassan: The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand | Page 8

dared!
HASSAN What do you fear? It is night, and the street is silent.
YASMIN: Ah, dear Hassan, but I am not alone.
HASSAN (Whispering) Not alone? Who is there? Your mother?
YASMIN No! One who you sent here.
HASSAN I sent no one.
YASMIN One of your friends.
HASSAN A man?
SELIM (Poking his head out of the window) Ya, Hassan, Salaam
aleikum. I thank you for directing my steps to this rose-strewn bower.
HASSAN (Astonished) Selim!
SELIM Thy servant always.
HASSAN (Wildly) Selim!
SELIM Be advised, O Hassan, go and seek the enchanted egg.
HASSAN Selim, what do you here?
SELIM Plunge not the finger of enquiry into the pie of impertinence, O
my uncle.
HASSAN Since when have I become your uncle, Selim, and how did I
cease to be your friend?
SELIM Since when did you aspire to poetry, O Hassan? But I have
heard these lines:
As from the eagle flies the dove So friendship from the claw of love.
HASSAN Love. What love do you mean, scum of the market?
SELIM This. (Puts a hand on YASMIN's shoulder.)
HASSAN May God strike thee blind, Selim, and shut the door of his
compassion against thee!
SELIM What is my crime, Uncle? How have I sinned against thee, or
merited the solemn imprecation?

HASSAN Do not touch her, you dog, do not touch her!
SELIM Is it a crime to touch Yasmin, my Uncle? Am I not to be
excused? Is not her neck a pillar of the marble of Yoonistan? (Puts his
arm around her neck.)
HASSAN Torment of death!
YASMIN Are not my arms like swords of steel, hard and cold, and
thirsty for blood? (Putting her arms around the neck of SELIM)
HASSAN Fire of hell!
SELIM Are not her eyes two sapphires in two pools?
HASSAN Woe is me! Woe is me!
YASMIN Are not my lips two rubies drenched in blood? (Kisses him)
HASSAN God, I shall fall!
SELIM (His face in YASMIN's bosom) Couldst thou but see, O my
Uncle, the silver hills with their pomegranate groves; or the deep
fountain in the swelling plain, or the Ethiopian who waters the roses in
the garden, or the great lamp between the columns where the incense of
love is burned. How can I thank thee, O my Uncle, for the name and
address, and half the old Jew's dinars!
YASMIN How can I thank thee, O my Uncle, for sending me this
strong and straight young friend of thine to console my loneliness and
desolation? Ah, it is bitter to be a widow and so young!
HASSAN (Putting up his hands to his head) The fountain, the fountain!
O my head, my head!
YASMIN Be not too rash, my Uncle, or thy hair will come away in thy
hands.
HASSAN If I could but reach your necks with a knife, children of
Sheitan!
YASMIN I was the sun of his existence, and now I am a child of
Sheitan-- and why? Never again will I trust the love of a man. I was a
glory too far shed, and now he wants to open my neck. And already he
has tried to poison me. Ya, Hassan, if you desire my death, send me
some more enchanted sweets!
SELIM Beware, O Hassan, of jesting with the Jinn.
YASMIN Buy, O Hassan, no more juice from Jews.
SELIM Much, I fear, O my friend, for thy character in the market. No
more will men say: "Hassan is a safe man"; but they will nudge each
other and say, "Beware of Hassan, Hassan is a great magician; he has

talked with the spirit's of the air! Deal not with Hassan, O my son,
Saadet, for he sells enchanted sweets that drive the consumer to
madness. And at night Hassan becomes a cat, and walketh on the roofs
after the female cats. Allah preserve me from the evil eye of such a
one!" And another will say, tapping his forehead, "Speak no harm of
poor Hassan, for his brain is very sick!" And the small, guileless boys
will say, "Behold Hassan, who gave ten dinars for a pint of indigo and
water."
HASSAN Ah, death!
YASMIN Look at him! He is drifting like a soul aswoon! Go home, old
fellow!
SELIM Go home and write poems!
YASMIN Go home, and cook sweets!
HASSAN Yasmin! Yasmin! My head!
YASMIN Begone, or I will cool thy head, thou wearisome old fool!
HASSAN Yasmin! Yasmin! (Stands with his arms outstretched)
YASMIN Take this, my bulbul, to quench thy aspiration. (Pours a jug
of water over him, and slams the shutters to. HASSAN does not budge
from his position.)
HASSAN O thou villainous, unclean dog, Selim. O thou unutterable
woman. I will have you both whipped through the city and impaled