RAFI
Let me die! I have seen you again. It is nothing for a man to die.
PERVANEH
Nothing for a man to die? 'Tis Heaven wide open for a man to die.
But they will tear you, Rafi, Rafi!
RAFI Shall I fear the pain you called upon yourself, or shrink where you were brave?
PERVANEH
(To the CALIPH) I ask so small a boon. Grant my lover a clean death!
CALIPH Thou dost ask a very great boon indeed. For as thou sayest, what is death? Shall the man who shakes my kingdom slip into eternity like a thief men catch in the bazaar? Shall he who does the greater wrong not suffer the greater pain?
PERVANEH
He is not afraid of pain.
CALIPH
That is not to say he feels not pain.
PERVANEH
Just and reasonable, yet there is a holier thing than reason and justice.
DERVISH
(His orthodoxy disturbed) A holier thing than justice?
PERVANEH
Yes, Dervish. There is that which should not be defiled.