Majnun and Layla: A Love Immortal

The Meeting

It was at midnight when Qays met Layla. He was passing by the roads in a drunken state when he heard Layla sing.

I breath and I eat, 

I sleep and I speak 

But I do not live

Alone in my cage 

I sing of my feedom 

I wish to be set free to fly

When Qays first heard the voice of Layla, he was shocked out of his drunken state. A voice so beautiful could not belong to a mere mortal. Qays sat and listened as Layla sung and when she finished he shouted into the night air, " O voice are you real or a figment of my imagination? Where do you come from? Are you a God or are you human?" 

When Layla heard the voice of Qays a strange thing happened. Her body became paralysed, she was unable to move, in awe of the first man who attempted to discover her identity and fear of the consequences. Her fear was greater than her awe and so she ran to her room and hid, as quiet as a gentle breeze. 

Qays was left with no answer and complete silence. It was at that moment that he became a true lover. 

For days after that occuance Layla did not sing fo fear of being found, but she sat in her garden imagining, the strong voice that questioned her identity. On the otherside of the wall sat Qays hoping to hear the breath of the Angel that sang in his drunken state, afraid to speak so as not to frighten or anger her. For nights the only sound that came from the area of Layla's home was the sound of gentle breathing in a silence that was alive with the tension of unspoken words.

On the eleventh night of their silence Qays once again spoke to Layla, he recited a poem that he had written for her in the hopes that she would answer.

In a drunken state I heard an Angel sing 

Her voice a melody 

Without need for instruments 

I long to hear that voice again 

I perish with that wait