Wali al-Din Yakan and May

Wali al-Din Yakan was one of the habitués of May's salons.. and he was enamored of her, an admirer.

May would speak openly of Wali al-Din's admiration for her, and of how he used to send her verses and visit her in the days of his illness.

Between her and him are letters folded away, not all of which have yet been published; and often Wali al-Din would give voice to his devotion to the brilliant woman of letters and close in this fashion: Beneath your feet — Wali al-Din Yakan.

And he presented her with his portrait, inscribed with this verse:

Everything of yours, O May, is precious;
only I, alone, am cheap in your eyes.

To the honorable and noble Miss May

Egypt, April 24, 1913

My lady:

I could wish my words had it in them to make their way to you to the utmost of ends. I am shaken. I look, and I see grace in abundance while my straitened powers fall short of requiting it; then my reins are drawn up by my helplessness — O crux of the matter, O apple of my eye. May time keep faith with you, you daughter of Isis and Osiris.

I do not know what I should describe — the beauty nature has molded, or the mellow voice, or your lofty words, or the light of the eyes. The least of these charms defeats my justice and rises above my comprehension.

I once held a place in the dominion of the pen; today the least of them in name outstrips me, so that I almost plunge headlong. You are like nature in every field: all else sickens and changes, while you stand constant. Nor shall I liken you to this or to that; nor shall I say that you are the paragon of the valiant, for such come in multitudes and you are one apart; but I say that you are the nightingale of poetry, caroling in the garden of life.

And your abundance of silver hangs high above the cities, and the sides of the engravings quiver; one might fancy them like the leaves that quicken in the spring and wither in the winter... a garden of chastity, garlanded — and the drowsiness of these years — mankind, in these threadbare days, has need of nothing so much as this.

My lady:
This is an admirer's greeting, and I shall remain the least beneath your name; and when it attains that station, let it salute —
May Ziadeh