Woman in the Literature of the East — To Samra... Her Eyes Spoke

(From "al-Sayyad," No. 91)

Your lips did not utter the word I was waiting for; but, my beloved, your eyes spoke...

And their speech was more eloquent than any declaration.

Three years we lived hiding the love and never declaring it, concealing it from people so that no one knew of it.

And the cruelest thing in this concealment, by God, was that I hid the passion from you — and hid it from myself — for fear it might change if it were disclosed, or become like every other love once people knew of it.

Until yesterday came, and I laid open to you the hiding places of my soul, and confided to you the secret of my breast, and whispered into your ear the hush of love and the echo of longing — like the murmurings of a child, and the sighings of the breeze, and the rustling of leaves!...

And you listened, and were not bewildered; and you heard, and did not answer; and you remained silent — but, my beloved, your eyes spoke...

I said to you, your small hand in mine: I want from you provision for a few days that I shall spend far from you, and nourishment for my hungry soul that thirsts for you, and a single word whose echo in my ear I shall make a celestial music to which my spirit listens.

I told you that I had raised in my breast a warm temple in which I worship you night and day; and that I had seated you, like some idol-god, on a pedestal made of my heart, and set to burning incense before you; and that I had lived with you, in the world of imagination, moments of life such as no lovers have enjoyed before or since.

And you listened, and smiled, and pressed your hand upon mine, and did not speak — but, my beloved, your eyes spoke...

Those two black eyes, wide as the horizons, deep as the night, shaded by their long, curling lashes — in them I read a line from the story of my life, written by fate when it joined your heart to mine and set me in your path. And in vain do you try to hide the love, or conceal it, for your eyes have spoken...

And they said: I love you.

L...