Nizami

To him, she was a precious diamond that was to be preserved with tenderness and loving care; to him, she was a casket of gems whose key was not to be given away lightly.

‘You must try to overcome your grief; if not, it will overcome you. It will consume you completely, for you are not invincible.

For today is your day: tomorrow belongs to death, and to death alone.

‘You must treat life as though this were your first day and also your last. Behave as though death were at your door this very moment; then, when death does arrive, you will have no fear. For only those who “die” before they die may hope to escape death’s jaws.’

‘Dear Father! Yours is a currency minted in wisdom; mine is a currency minted in love! Yours is the sober language of reason; mine is the wild gibberish of a man made mad by desire! This is how it is; it cannot be changed.

A fire burns in my soul, a fire so fierce that it has consumed my very being and reduced it to ashes. And now I am lost in a wilderness of my own making.

You created a niche for me in a corner of your heart: now that Fate has sealed up that niche, here I am trying to reach it!

And then Majnun realised; for the first time it all became clear. The stars did not care for him because they could not care. The stars, like the grains of sand beneath his feet, were blind, deaf and dumb! Their glittering show was just that — a show. Beneath the splendid façade, they were but inanimate creatures with neither voice nor vision. What could the suffering of a human soul possibly mean to them?

‘Her appearance was that of a most beauteous book in which all of the subtlest, most beautiful characters of our alphabet had been written. Her hair was curled like the hook of the letter “Jim”; her figure was as lithe and slender as an “Alif”; her mouth was curved like a “Mim”. Yes, when you add these three letters together, they spell “Jam” [goblet], and that is what she was: a precious goblet of crystal reflecting the secrets of the universe!

‘Her eyes are narcissi that flower at the mouth of a stream: look deep into them and you can see her dreams!