(The song of the MUEZZIN is heard, "La Allah illa Allah," etc.)
HASSAN
The sun has set. Guards, O Guards! (No answer) It is the hour of prayer,
do you not pray? I have still a little treasure. (No answer from the GUARDS)
Are you dumb? (GUARDS nod) But why are you not deaf?
(GUARDS point to their tongues) Ah—your tongues have been torn out!
(GUARD points to window of the pavilion)
What do you point at?… Ah, Yasmin!
YASMIN I have seen and heard behind the lattice. Hassan has fallen from power and favour.
HASSAN
(Crazily) Ah, good, very good, surpassing good! You are at the window—
I am in the street. This is a reflection of that. As swans go double
in a river, so do events come drifting down our lives. Again, again!
Bow down thy head, O burning bright! for one night or the other
night
Will come the gardener in white, and gathered flowers are dead,
Yasmin!
Come now, a sweet lie first, Yasmin: sing a little how you love me. Show me your beauty limb by limb—then bring, ah, bring your new lover— mock my moon-touched verses and call me the fool, the old fool, the weary fool I am.
YASMIN I will not yet call Hassan a fool. Hassan has fallen from power, but he need not fall from riches. The Palace Confectioner Hassan, may still become the richest merchant in Bagdad.
HASSAN
Thou harlot, thou harlot, thou harlot!
YASMIN
Why art thou angry? In what have I insulted thee?
HASSAN
Oh, if it were thou about to suffer! If it were thou!