HASSAN
(To his SLAVES) Hold her!
(ALDER and WILLOW each grip an arm. JUNIPER grips her ankles. She is held standing. Her cloak falls. She is clothed in short jacket and trousers of white silk with a pattern of blue flowers: her waist is naked, in the Persian style.)
YASMIN
Ah—what will you do to me? You forgave me.
HASSAN (To YASMIN) Ah, I forgave you the insults and all that hour of shame. And Allah shall forgive you your trade if Allah wills. But you have pressed your foul body on mine—you have breathed your poison on my cheek, and twined your snakes (God break them!) round my breast. Preparethen to die, for it is not right for the sake of mankind would you should walk any more upon the road of earth..
YASMIN
(Quietly, but in terror) To die! What do you mean! No, no!
Ah, murder, ah!
HASSAN
Do you hear the fountain dripping—drop by drop—drop by drop?
So shall your blood fall on my carpet and colour me more red flowers.
YASMIN
(Recovering) I am not afraid.
HASSAN Do you expect mercy? I left mercy with my sweets. For all these years I have been a humble man, of soft and kindly disposition— such a man as the world and a woman hate. But now I shall never again be the fool of my fellows. Now all Bagdad shall know and say: "We thought Hassan a mild man and a kind man; our children stole his sweets and he did but stroke his beard, while to a beggar he had known three days he would instantly lend three dinars. And behold, he has become powerful and hath cut down the body of Yasmin the infamous who had done him wrong, as a woodman cuts a tree. Yallah, our knees shall bend when Hassan goes driving by!" Yasmin, stiffen your sinews and close your eyes.
YASMIN
Not with the sword, not with the sword!
HASSAN Let me taste the ecstasy of power. Let me drink of the fulness of life. Let me be one of those who conquer because they do not care. (He draws the sword: Yasmin cries out loud.) You are Yasmin, the poor, the beautiful, the proud: I am Hassan, rich and passionate and strong. You have hurt me, I will hurt you; it is the rule of the game, and the way of the world. Do I hate you? I do not know or care. Do I love you?— then love shall drive the blade in deep. You are the world's own stupendous harlot, and I will cut you clean in two. (He swings sword over his head to strike.)