NIZAMI GANJAVI

Layla and Majnun

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One night desperate Majnun prayed tearfully, “Oh Lord of mine who has abandoned me. Why has Thou ‘Majnun’ called me? Why hast thou made a lover of Layla of me? Thou hast made me a pillow of wild thorns, Made me roam day and night without a home. What dost Thou want from my imprisonment? Oh Lord of mine, listen to my plea!”

The Lord replied, “Oh lost man, With Layla’s love I have your heart filled; The beauty of Layla that you see Is just another reflection of Me”.

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“This text requires a single name, not two,” He answered them. “Majnun alone will do. If someone delves within a lover’s heart, He’ll find the loved one in its deepest part.” “But why,” they asked him, “from among the two It’s Layla who’s been cut away, not you?” “It’s wrong,” he said, “for her to be the cover That hides within itself this ardent lover. I am the veil for what should be internal. I am the outer shell; she is the kernel.

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