CALIPH
Whither now does thy plea wander?
PERVANEH O Father of Islam, can thine eyes that love flowers behold man's body hewn into foul shapes and monstrous as the phantoms that go wailing round the graves? Can thy ears that love the music of Ishak, listen to the gasps of the tormented droning through their bodies like a winter wind among the pines?
CALIPH I shall not honour Rafi with my attendance: I shall be far from sight and sound.
PERVANEH
The thought of it—the thought of it!
CALIPH I have been ordering executions all my life. There is only one thought that can haunt me—the thought of a coffin closing on open eyes, the sway of the coffin carried to the grave, the crash at the bottom of the pit, the rumble of earth on the lid, the gasping for breath and light.
PERVANEH He was distraught by passion, he spoke in fury: but thou dost judge him with a quiet mind. He is a man among men, but thou art the representative of God on earth, the sole Priest of Islam. Thou shalt not order God's image to be defiled.
CALIPH So you would have me spare him for the sake of the perfection of man's body? O Pervaneh, I am far more likely to spare him for the perfection of woman's.
PERVANEH
(Shrinking from the implied menace) For those that have wits,
O Master, perfection is sundered from desire.
CALIPH
You are a woman—perfect—but a woman.
PERVANEH
By the curse of God.