Syracuse University Press

Chapter Title: The Sun

Book Title: Chronicles of Majnun Layla and Selected Poems

Book Author(s): Qassim Haddad
Published by: Syracuse University Press. (2014)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1j5dfrf.23

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The Sun

He was told, “She is but one of many.”

He said, “Can there be anyone like her among women?”

He was told, “Many. Many if you want, and they will love you
too.”

He said, “But I love no one but Layla; among women there exists
no substitute.”

Annoyed, he moved away from them. “I reveal to them that she is

the sun, but they stray from her and become confused. I’ve almost
rolled their noses in her light—perhaps they feel what hell might
do to the body. I gesture to them to look at her, but they gaze at my
finger and see nothing. They fix on the point of the finger, their
pupils dilating until they become night-blind. Their eyeballs start
melting, losing sight. In the end perhaps they lose it all.”

The Sun 41

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