A few days thereafter I met Madame
Rose Hanie for the first time, in a poor hovel, surrounded by flowers
and trees. She had heard of me through Rashid Bey Namaan, the man
whose heart she had crushed and stamped upon and left under the
terrible hoofs of Life. As I looked at her beautiful bright eyes, and
heard her sincere voice, I said to myself, "Can this be the
sordid woman? Can this clear face hide an ugly soul and a criminal
heart? Is this the unfaithful wife? Is this the woman of whom I have
spoken evil and imagined as a serpent disguised in the form of a
beautiful bird?" Then I whispered again to myself saying,
"Is it this beautiful face that made Rashid Bey Namaan miserable?
Haven't we heard that obvious beauty is the cause of many hidden
distresses and deep suffering? Is not the beautiful moon, that
inspires the poets, the same moon that angers the silence of the sea
with a terrible roar?"
As we seated ourselves, Madame
Rose Hanie seemed to have heard and read my thoughts and wanted not to
prolong my doubts. She leaned her beautiful head upon her hands and
with a voice sweeter than the sound of the lyre, she said, "I
have never met you, but I heard the echoes of your thoughts and dreams
from the mouths of the people, and they convinced me that you are
merciful and have understanding for the oppressed woman - the woman
whose heart's secrets you have discovered and whose affections you
have known. Allow me to reveal to you the full contents of my heart so
you may know that Rose Hanie never was an unfaithful woman.
"I was scarcely eighteen
years of age when fate led me to Rashid Bey Namaan, who was then forty
years old. He fell in love with me, according to what the people say,
and took me for a wife and put me in his magnificent home, placing at
my disposal clothes and precious gems. He exhibited me as a strange
rarity at the homes of his friends and family; he smiled with triumph
when he saw his contemporaries looking at me with surprise and
admiration; he lifted his chin high with pride when he heard the
ladies speak of me with praise and affection. But never could he hear
the whispers, 'Is this the wife of Rashid Bey Namaan, or his adopted
daughter?' And another one commenting, 'If he had married at the
proper age, his first born would have been older than Rose Hanie.'
"All that happened before my
life had awakened from the deep swoon of youth, and before God
inflamed my heart with the torch of love, and before the growth of the
seeds of my affections. Yes, all this transpired during the time when
I believed that real happiness came through beautiful clothes and
magnificent mansions. When I woke up from the slumber of childhood, I
felt the flames of sacred fire burning in my heart, and a spiritual
hunger gnawing at my soul, making it suffer. When I opened my eyes, I
found my wings moving to the right and left, trying to ascend into the
spacious firmament of love, but shivering and dropping under the gusts
of the shackles of laws that bound my body to a man before I knew the
true meaning of that law. I felt all these things and knew that a
woman's happiness does not come through man's glory and honour, nor
through his generosity and affection, but through love that unites
both of their hearts and affections, making them one member of life's
body and one word upon the lips of God. When Truth showed herself to
me, I found myself imprisoned by law in the mansion of Rashid Bey
Namaan, like a thief stealing his bread and hiding in the dark and
friendly corners of the night. I knew that every hour spent with him
was a terrible lie written upon my forehead with letters of fire
before heaven and earth. I could not give him my love and affection in
reward for his generosity and sincerity. I tried in vain to love him,
but love is a power that makes our hearts, yet our hearts cannot make
that power. I prayed and prayed in the silence of the night before God
to create in the depths of my heart a spiritual attachment that would
carry me closer to the man who had been chosen for me as a companion
through life.
"My prayers were not
granted, because Love descends upon our souls by the will of God and
not by the demand or the plea of the individual. Thus I remained for
two years in the home of that man, envying the birds of the field
their freedom while my friends envied me my painful chains of gold. I
was like a woman who is torn from her only child; like a lamenting
heart, existing without attachment; like an innocent victim of the
severity of human law. I was close to death from spiritual thirst and
hunger.
"One dark day, as I looked
behind the heavy skies, I saw a gentle light pouring from the eyes of
a man who was walking forlornly on the path of life; I closed my eyes
to that light and said to myself, 'Oh, my soul, darkness of the grave
is thy lot, do not be greedy for the light.' Then I heard a beautiful
melody from heaven that revived my wounded heart with its purity, but
I closed my ears and said, 'Oh, my soul, the cry of the abyss is thy
lot, do not be greedy for heavenly songs.' I closed my eyes again so I
could not see, and shut my ears so I could not hear, but my closed
eyes still saw that gentle light, and my ears still heard that divine
sound. I was frightened for the first time and felt like the beggar
who found a precious jewel near the Emir's palace and could not pick
it up on account of fear, or leave it because of poverty. I cried - a
cry of a thirsty soul who sees a brook surrounded by wild beasts, and
falls upon the ground waiting and watching fearfully."
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