for the elder nun and for Hassan the cook turned into a vague feeling toward this little Layla. She was four years younger than I. I remember now that I tried, again and again, to feel out her presence and her form with my hand, but I held back, for I knew her to be intensely sensitive; and I envied all who could see. Had I had two eyes, I would not have needed to touch her — a glance would have been enough.

I knew she was plump from her walk... for in our world we know a person's weight from the fall of his footsteps.. As for my dreams, they were the sweetest hours of my life. I dreamed again and again that I could see, and that I was once more leaping from the wall of our house to go to the square of our quarter. When I woke, the dream would melt away, and I would rub my eyes to no avail. I marveled at these dreams in which I lived as a seeing man. And I asked myself, over and over: Is it truly a blessing, my Lord, or a curse, that the blind man should dream he sees?

As for the work we did in the convent, it was astonishing indeed, and I had never dreamed I could do such a thing.

The nun in charge taught us how to paint the walls of the courtyard, and we would draw upon them the religious shapes we imagined — pictures of crosses, and of the steps by which the believer climbs to heaven. The nuns praised these drawings, and I swelled with pride, having proved that I was still able to make something that could seize the admiration of the seeing.

And the second Sunday of my life came..

That Sunday passed more swiftly than the Sunday on which the first tragedy fell.. A foreign doctor came to us that day, and after he had examined us all he asked that I come to him; and I learned from the Mother that he was going to perform an operation on me that would grant me the light.. My joy outran everyone's amazement, for that day I learned the meaning of