CHARACTERS

HASSAN, a Confectioner

The CALIPH HAROUN AR RASCHID

ISHAK, his Minstrel

JAFAR, his Vizier

MASRUR, his Executioner

RAFI, King of the Beggars

SELIM, a friend of Hassan's

THE CAPTAIN OF THE MILITARY

THE CHIEF OF THE POLICE

ALI, ABDU Nondescripts

ALDER WILLOW <JUNIPER> TAMARISK Slaves

THE PORTER of Yasmin's House

THE CHINESE PHILOSOPHER

A DERVISH

THE FOUNTAIN GHOST

A HERALD

THE PRISON GUARDS

PERVANEH

YASMIN

An AMBASSADOR, a WRESTLER, a CALLIGRAPHIST, a JESTER, GHOSTS, MUTES, DANCING WOMEN, BEGGARS, SOLDIERS, POLICE, ATTENDANTS and CASUAL LOITERERS

THE STORY OF HASSAN OF BAGDAD

ACT I

SCENE I

A room "behind the shop" in Old Bagdad. In the background a large caldron steaming, for the shop is a sweet-stuff shop and the sugar is boiling. The room has little furniture beyond the carpet, old but unexpectedly choice, and some Persian hangings (geometrical designs, with crude animals and some verses from the Koran hand-printed on linen). A ramshackle wooden partition in one corner shuts off from a living room what appears to be the shop.

Squatting on the carpet—facing each other:

HASSAN, the Confectioner, 45, rotund, moustache, turban, greasy grey dress.

SELIM, his friend, young, vulgarly handsome, gaudily clothed.

HASSAN (Rocking on his mat) Eywallah, Eywallah!

SELIM Thirty-seven times have you made the same remark, O father of repetition.

HASSAN (More dolefully than ever) Eywallah, Eywallah!

SELIM Have you caught fever? Is your chest narrow, or your belly thunderous?

HASSAN (With a ponderous sigh) Eywallah!

SELIM Is that the merchant of sweetmeats, that sour face? O poisoner of children, surely it would be better to cut the knot of reluctance and uncord the casket of explanation. And the poet Antari has justly remarked:

Divide your sorrow and impart your grief, O fool. That good man comforteth beyond belief, O fool.

HASSAN (Inclining towards the mat) None is good, save God. And Abou Awas has excellently sung:

The importunate Are seldom fortunate.

Nevertheless, know, Selim, that I am in love.

SELIM In love! Then why sit moaning on the mat? Are there not beauties at the barbers, and lights of love at the bazaar?

HASSAN (Angrily) Hold your tongue, Selim, or leave me. I was in earnest when I said I loved, and your coarseness is ill-fitting to my mood. And well I know I am Hassan, the Confectioner, yet I can love as sincerely as Mejnun; for assuredly she of whom my heart is bent is not less fair than Leila.

SELIM (Ironically) Alas! I mistook the particular for the general, and did not recognise the purity of your intentions. But I would not mention Mejnun. Mejnun was young, and you are old, and he was a prince, and you are a Confectioner, and he was beautiful, and you are not, and he was very thin because of his sorrow, and you are fatter than those four-legged I mention not— God curse their herdsmen!

HASSAN And if it be as you say, Selim, if I am indeed a fat, old, ugly tradesman, have I not good reason to be sorry and rock upon my mat, for how shall maintain my heart's desire?

SELIM Listen to me, Hassan, why is it that in this last year you have become different from the Hassan that was Hassan? From time to time you talk strangely in your cups, like a mad poet; and you have bought a lute and a carpet too fine for your house. And now I feel you are losing your senses when I hear this talk of love from one who is past the age of folly.

HASSAN It may be so, young man. Indeed, a think I am a fool. It is the affliction of Allah.

SELIM Tell me, at least, who she is. It may be she is not so unattainable as you imagine, unless indeed you have set eyes on the Caliph's daughter, or on the Queen of all the Jinn.

HASSAN Listen, Selim, and I will tell you my affair. Three days ago a woman came here to buy loukoum of me, dressed as a widow, and bade me follow her to her door with a parcel. Alas, Selim! I could see her eyes beneath her veil, and they were like the twin fountains in the Caliph's garden; and her lips beneath her veil were like roses hidden in moss, and her waist was flexible as a palm-tree swaying in the wind, and her hips were large and heavy and round, like water melons in the season of water melons. I glanced at her but she would not smile, and I sighed but she would not glance, and the door of her house shut fast against me, like the gate of paradise against an infidel. Eywallah! (Recommences moaning.)

SELIM And where was the house of this widow who bought sweetmeats and had none to sell?

HASSAN In the street of Felicity, by the fountain of the Two Pigeons.

SELIM (Musing) It must be the widow of that Achmet they hung last year by the Basra Gate.

HASSAN Which Achmet?

SELIM The hairy one.

HASSAN Istagfurallah! He fluttered like a bird. May I never soar so high.

SELIM Istagfurallah! May I see you! I should burst with laughter and vultures with repletion. But tell me, you who have fallen so deeply in love, do you rejoice in your misfortune like a dervish in his dirt, or do you honestly desire satisfaction?

HASSAN I desire satisfaction Selim. But I pray you talk no more of this.

SELIM Well, take courage, faint heart, since all things can be cured save perversity in asses. Perhaps I can cure you of love.

HASSAN By the Prophet, Selim, do not cure my love, cure her indifference.

SELIM (With sudden alertness) There is only one way of doing that.

HASSAN Which way?

SELIM Do you believe in magic, Hassan?

HASSAN Men who think themselves wise believe nothing till the proof. Men who are wise believe anything till the disproof.

SELIM What do we know if magic be a lie or not? But since it is certain that only magic can avail you, you may as well put it to the test. You can buy a philtre that can draw her love, and send her a jar of magic sweets.

HASSAN I am ready to all things, ingenious Selim; but do you know a good magician?

SELIM Zachariah, the Jew, has but lately arrived from Aleppo: he is the talk of all the market place, and a wonderful man if tales be true.

HASSAN Have you the tales?

SELIM I have this among many. They say that in Bokhara a man called him an offensive Jew and flung a stone at his head: and he caused the stone to be suspended in the air and the man too, so that the man walked all round Bokhara over the heads of the passers-by, who were astonished, and was constrained to enter his house by the upper window.

HASSAN (Incredulous) Mashallah!

SELIM And stranger than that. At Ispahan men say he took off the dome of the Great Mosque and turned it round and had a bath in it, and put it back again.

HASSAN Mashallah!

SELIM And strangest of all, at Cairo, for the amusement of the Sultan, he turned the whole population into apes for half an hour.

HASSAN A very trifling change if you knew the Egyptians. I don't believe a word of all these tales. Yet, doubtless he is as good enough physician to make a love philtre. But are philtres any good?

SELIM There can be no doubt that there are philtres which drive women to love, though their hearts be as strong and their heads as cold as the mountains of Qaf. But as for this Zachariah, I know he sells philtres at ten dinars the bottle: his shop is crowded with rich old women.

HASSAN Eywallah, Salim, I am sick of love; but no damsel is worth ten dinars. And sages have remarked, "the ideal is expensive!" And philosophers have observed, "There are a thousand figs on the fig-tree and all as like as like."

SELIM What! All the smooth, shining hills and well-wooded valleys in that country of love…All going for ten dinars!… And this is the man whose love is like Mejnun's! What is ten dinars to a man in love? You gave thrice that sum for this carpet.

HASSAN A carpet is a carpet, and a woman is is a woman. It is not only the ten dinars. But you know that in this market I have a character. "Hassan", men say, "is a safe man. Hassan will not leave his jacket on the wall, or buy peas without prodding the sack." But if they hear: "A stranger came to Bagdad and no Mussulman and said he would do this, and Hassan has paid him ten dinars and got no gain", they will nudge each other when I walk abroad at evening, and say: "A sad end"; and another "Look at him, Saadet, my son, and drink no wine"; and another, "God preserve me from the friends of such a one!" and they will call out to me as they pass, "Ya Hassan, give me ten dinars that I may build a mosque!" and I will be shamed where I was honoured, and abased where I was exalted….

(A loud knocking on the floor of the adjacent shop causes HASSAN to retire thither hurriedly. As he disappears YASMIN peeps inquisitively, unveiled, through the little window in the partition.)

SELIM What an impudent little beauty…. Why, she had a widow's scarf on. She must be the princess! (Rocks with laughter) The unattainable ideal! And I have her address. It requires a frenzied lover to pay cash for a flask of coloured water. But I doubt if Hassan's sweets mingled with coloured water will do aught but can make her sick. Whereas a cake stuffed with those very dinars…. Allah, the dinars would not choke her! O thou fool Hassan!

Tell not thy shirt who smiled and answered "Yes": Dream not her name, nor fancy her address.

(Enter Hassan, pale and staggering.)

HASSAN Selim, in the name of friendship, take these ten dinars and buy me that philtre, and return with speed.

SELIM (Feigning irritation) Allah! Am I your messenger? Go yourself to the Jew.

HASSAN I must prepare the sweetmeats this very hour, to send them to her before sunset. In the name of friendship, Selim, take the dinars and purchase me that philtre.

SELIM (Rising and taking dinars) Do not make me chargeable, O Hassan, if the philtre is without effect. I only repeat what I have heard.

HASSAN No, I will not blame you. But go quickly for the magic that nothing may be left unsampled that may prove beneficial.

(Exit SELIM; HASSAN makes up the fire and prepares his caldron, saying meanwhile)

That young man weareth out my carpet apace. I begin to think also he doth fray the braid of my affection. But if he buys me a good philtre I will forgive him. Oh, cruel destiny, thou hast made me a common man with a common trade. My friends are fellows from the market, and all my worthless family is dead. Had I been rich, ah me! how deep had been my delight in matters of the soul, in poetry and music and pictures, and companions who do not jeer and grin, and above all, and in the colours of rich carpets and expensive silks. But be content, O artist: thou hast one carpet; be content, O confectioner: thou hast one love—one love, but unattained…yet hadst thou been rich, O confectioner, never hadst thou found her.

Now I will make her sweets, such sweets, ah me! as never I made in my life before. I will make her sweets like globes of crystal, like cubes of jade, like polygons of ruby. I will make her sweets like flowers. Great red roses, passionate carnations, raying daisies, violets, and curly hyacinths. I will perfume my roses (may they melt sweetly in her lips) with the perfume of roses, so that she shall say "a rose"! and smell before she tastes. And in the heart of each flower I will distil one drop of the magic of love. Did I not say "they shall be flowers"?

SCENE II

Moonlight. The Street of Felicity by the Fountain of the Two Pigeons. A house with a balcony on either side of the street. In front of one of the houses, HASSAN, cloaked: a PORTER.

HASSAN Has she received the box, O guardian of the door of separation?

PORTER From my hands, O dispenser of bounty.

HASSAN What did thy mistress say?

PORTER Sir, the hands of mediation are empty.

HASSAN (Giving a dinar) I have filled them. What honey dropped from that golden mouth?

PORTER She said—may thy servant find grace—"Curses on that fat sugar cook and his love-sick eyes. Allah be praised, his confectionery is better than his countenance!"

HASSAN (Aside) If she likes the confectionery, all may be well. And what didst thou reply?

PORTER: I said: "His sweets sparkle like diamonds and rubies in the crown of OUR Caliph, and his sugar is as pure as his intentions." And she answered—the protection on thy slave—"his intentions may be pure, but his coat is greasy."

HASSAN And did she eat the confectionery?

PORTER I do not know. But within the hour I removed the box, and it was empty.

HASSAN Ah! Salaam and thanks.

PORTER And to thee the Salaam.

HASSAN But tell me what is the name of thy mistress?

PORTER Yasmin is her name, Sir.

HASSAN A sweet name for a moonlight night. Salaam aleikum.

PORTER Ya Hawaja, v'aleikum assalam!

(The PORTER returns and shuts the gate.)

HASSAN (To himself) What if the Jews are an older race than we and know old forgotten secrets? Alas, I believe no more in these Israelitish sweets. Could those drops of purple liquid command the spirit of love? And yet, who can say? the young men of the market-place laugh at all enchantments—but do they know how to spin the sun? On a night like this, does not the very fountain sing in tune and 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 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.