Characters; Act One, Scene One

Characters

Men

Rustam – commander-in-chief of the armies of Iran
Sohrab – Rustam's son
The King of Samangan – ruler of Samangan
Pilsam – a chief of Samangan
Human – a soldier of Turan
Barman – a soldier of Turan
Afrasiyab – King of Turan
Kay Kavus – King of Iran
Gustaham – a chief of Iran
Bahram – a member of the garrison of the White Fortress
Hajir – keeper of the White Fortress
Tus – a chief
Gudarz – a chief

Women

Tahmina – Sohrab's mother
Gurdafarid – daughter of the governor of the White Fortress

Some soldiers, villagers and maids

Act One – Scene One

(A green and flourishing hill country on the border of Turan)

(The morning sun is seen in the sky, and Rustam on horseback)

Rustam: The sun, that brings light to the world, smiles to the flowers, songs to the birds, a singing flow to the rivers, and the call to wake to every slumbering power of action, shines on the brow of the eastern horizon like a crown scattering gold. What a majestic sight! It seems not a sun but a book of light, in which the world, newly awake, reads the meaning of the dream of its past. It is a radiant angel come from the land of the stars, from whom every thing in creation begs the blessings of life. On this earth too, as in the sky, the same scenes of rising and setting are seen every day. The star of a man's fortune and the sun of a nation's glory likewise draw aside the black curtain of the night of obscurity, shine out in the open sky of fame, reign over the golden days of success, and at last, leaving their faint or bright marks on the world's memory and the pages of history, vanish into the darkness of the evening of extinction.
In this unstable world every thing moves at speed;
Each day has its night, each morning has its evening; rose and thorn alike are dyed with the colour of decline:
A deception is this garden's autumn, and a deception its spring.

(Rustam dismounts)

Rustam: With the golden rays of the sun, beauty and colour are scattered all around. Music dances in the air to the songs of the birds. A flood of morning light, the scent of flowers and the nightingale's melodies flows over the earth. It seems that this forest is a poem composed by Nature, these lofty mountains are the theme of that poem, these running springs are its flow, and these red, green and yellow flowers are its lovely metaphors.

(He pats the horse's neck lovingly)

Rustam: Companion of my boyhood, friend of my youth, faithful comrade of the battlefield, look there: in the cool shade of the green trees a cloth of green velvet has been spread far and wide for your feast. Gusts of wind bathed in fragrance come again and again to call you. Go, accept their invitation.

(He lets the horse loose to graze)

Rustam: Heedless of the pains of cold and heat, hunger and thirst, like a star fallen from the sky that has lost its way in space, I have wandered for two months through forests and mountains in pursuit of the hunt. Enough: the hunt and the journey are both over. After giving my tired body a little rest, I shall set out for Iran this very day.

(He makes a pillow of his shield and lies down on the ground)

Rustam: Sleep, beloved sleep. You are the darling daughter of Nature, the queen of the land of blessings, the princess of the kingdom of rest.
Spurning the thorns scattered along the way,
Come, come, smiling and raining flowers,
Give comfort to the soul and rest to the body,
Give to life God's finest reward.

(He slowly falls asleep. Some chiefs of Turan, returning from a journey through Iran to their homeland Samangan, enter)

First Chief: Among the wonders of the world, you too are a strange thing. Even after seeing paradise, you say paradise is not beautiful.

Second Chief: Yes.

First Chief: Then surely you did not take your eyes with you on the journey to Iran. To me it felt as though I were wandering not in the land of Jamshid and Faridun, but in the colourful world of some poet's imagination.

Second Chief: Just as death and life, darkness and light, Ahriman and Yazdan have been at war since the beginning of time, so from of old Iran and Turan have held their enmity for each other to be a debt their very lives must pay. We are Turanians. Put a dagger to a Turanian's throat, and even then he will not praise Iran.

First Chief: He will not praise it! Why?

Second Chief: Because it is the country of our homeland's enemies.

First Chief: The Iranian nation is the enemy of the Turanian nation. But the majestic mountains of Iran, its beautiful cities, its flourishing forests, its rivers that wave and wind like the tresses of fairies, are not our enemies. On this journey, did the sky of Iran refuse you the light of its sun and moon because you were a Turanian? Did the springs of Iran not quench your thirst? Did the earth of Iran refuse you a place to sit and sleep? You may let enmity forbid your lips to speak the truth, but I will say it without fear even before Afrasiyab, Emperor of Turan: the paradise of the world is Asia, and the paradise of Asia is Iran.

Second Chief: Enough, enough. I do not wish to hear an ode in praise of Iran. You are not a poet; you are a soldier.

First Chief: I did not come into this world with a heart as small, a view as narrow and a mind as low as yours. To call the good good is not poetry; it is justice. As much as you are an enemy of Iran, you are even more an enemy of justice and reason.

Second Chief: Your words are as bitter as poison and as sharp as the point of a knife. (Drawing his sword from its sheath) Take them back. Ask pardon and take back those words, or I shall have to answer them with the sword.

First Chief: Then you will have to hear the answer to that answer in the language of the sword as well.

(The two chiefs attack each other)

Third Chief: (Stopping them) What is this! Such a base use of the sword and of strength! Have we no enemy left in the world, that to save our swords from rust we have started a war among ourselves? The Turanians have weapons, armies, wealth, strength, courage, everything. Only one thing they lack: unity. That is why, against their enemies, every victory of theirs turns into defeat. Throw down your swords. Join hands to mend the broken bond of love. A nation that does not know how to live with sympathy and unity, one heart and one mind, remember, the seal of lasting disgrace has already been set on the writ of its fate. It is born for slavery in a free world, and it will remain the slave of a foreign nation to its last breath. If there is unity in hearts and harmony in desires,
Then to win the comforts of life is child's play;
For success there must be awareness of one's state:
Become one, if you want honour in the world.

(The two chiefs sheathe their swords and shake hands)

First Chief: Friend, with remorse I confess my fault.

Second Chief: This was no quarrel. For a moment our friendship dreamed of a battle of swords.

Third Chief: We must reach Samangan before evening falls. You have sharpened your swords enough; now quicken your steps.

(They move on, and their eyes fall on the sleeping Rustam)

First Chief: Who is this? Is this a man! Or have the majesty of Nature, the firmness of the mountain and the terror of the lion taken on a human body!!

Third Chief: It seems an ocean of strength, walled in by flesh and bone, swelling its chest in sleep and breathing slowly.

First Chief: The longer you look at his face, the more your wonder grows. Even Nature, after making him, must have gazed at him for ages with astonished eyes.

Fourth Chief: (Seeing the horse) Look there. The eyes of a deer, the neck of a peacock, the chest of a rhinoceros, the waist of a leopard, the gait of a swan: if you would see every beauty in a single mirror, look before you.

First Chief: What a magnificent horse. It is as if the king of the forest were roaming over the green grass.

Second Chief: Tie it up and take it to Samangan. We will present it to the King.

First Chief: But this is theft.

Second Chief: This is not theft. For a thief is punished, and we shall be rewarded by the King.

(They all go, taking the horse. Rustam slowly wakes)

Rustam: Just as fields dying in the lap of the heat come back to life after the rain, so sleep after waking and rest after toil give new life and new strength to a man's body. (Rising) The sun keeps climbing like the fortune of Kay Kavus, the mighty Emperor of Iran, and its warmth keeps growing like the courage of a generous man.

(Rustam calls to his horse)

Rustam: Come, come. Friend who stands by me everywhere, in war, in wandering, on the road, come. The road to Iran is waiting for our return. He did not hear. Where are you? Have you gone far off? Let me look.

(Rustam goes in search of the horse. Two villagers come in)

First Villager: Was that a horse or a beautiful storm! In place of blood his veins were full of lightning.

Second Villager: With every jerk of his body, two or four men could be seen rolling on the ground like balls.

First Villager: And with every kick you could hear two or four ribs breaking.

Second Villager: When the horse is so brave, how brave must his master be?

First Villager: Who is this coming? A frown on his brow, his eyebrows drawn tight, redness in his eyes, his face blazing with anger!! Does he mean to punish this forest for some crime of its own?

(Rustam returns)

Rustam: He is nowhere to be seen. There is no trace of him anywhere. Am I to believe that, just as health deserts a man in old age, as a faithless servant deserts his master when he is offered more pay elsewhere than he is worth, as flatterers and false friends desert a man when misfortune comes, so my Rakhsh too has learned treachery from the world and deserted me today? No, no, that is impossible. Then where shall I look? Whom shall I ask? I asked the sky; I asked the earth. I asked the waves of the spring, the gusts of the wind, the trees of the forest. But no one answers. All are silent. Listen, listen, trees, listen. It was beneath your own green shade that the shade of my life vanished. Bring it back, or I will set this forest on fire and bury you in smoke and ruin.
The earth is my handmaid, the heavens my slave;
Pitiless as death is my vengeance.
I am that Rustam before whom the age trembles;
If you have not heard my name, hear it from me now.

First Villager: Let us get out of here. This man is turning as fearsome as a hungry lion.

(The two villagers try to run away. Rustam stops them)

Rustam: Stop!

Second Villager: You are as hot as a ball of fire, sir. Cool down a little. We will come back.

Rustam: (Stamping on the ground) I command you. Stop. (The two tremble with fear) You have not been sentenced to death. Then why are you trembling?

First Villager: Who is trembling, sir? A cool, cool breeze is blowing, so our legs feel a little cold.

Rustam: (Sternly) Who are you?

Second Villager: (Flustered) We... we... are men.

Rustam: (Stamping on the ground again) Did I say you were grass or stones?

(The two fall down in fright)

First Villager: We must surely have seen some ill-omened face when we left home today.

Rustam: Get up, cowards, stand up, and answer what I ask. Will you get up, or...

(He raises his fist)

Second Villager: Get up, man. If we don't rise from the ground, he will raise us out of the world altogether.

Rustam: Where do you two live?

First Villager: In a village a little way from this forest.

Rustam: You live in the nearby village?

Second Villager: Sir, we are two poor peasants. We were not born in the King's palace. We are not fit for heaven. We don't want to go to hell. So if we don't live in a village, where shall we live?

Rustam: If you live here, you must surely have seen it?

First Villager: Seen what?

Rustam: Take care. Do not dare to lie to me. (Seizing him by the throat) Confess that...

Second Villager: But before you break his neck, do at least tell us what we are to confess.

Rustam: That you have seen my faithful horse.

First Villager: Oh! Then that horse reared on a lioness's milk was yours!!?

Rustam: Yes. Where is he?

Second Villager: In the hands of the chiefs of Turan.

First Villager: They have captured him and taken him to Samangan to present to their King.

Rustam: You babble. You are a liar. You are mad. The impossible cannot be made possible. A storm cannot be bound in chains. Lightning cannot be tied with ropes. No mother in this world has borne a youth so daring and fearless that he could tighten his saddle on Rustam's horse, Rakhsh. Your eyes have deceived you, and you are deceiving me.

Second Villager: Not I. By not believing the truth, you are deceiving yourself.

Rustam: The proof of your truth?

First Villager: You will find both the proof and the horse in Samangan.

(The two villagers leave)

Rustam: Samangan! What is Samangan? A tiny state of Turan. A faint mark on the map of the earth. A paltry dot in the geography of the world!! (Taking up his shield and mace) I will see. I will see. I will see, Samangan, how strong are the walls of your fortress, the legs of your king's throne, the hearts and arms of your warriors. Tell your soldiers to string their bows, fill their quivers with arrows, and whet their swords. Rustam is coming at you as a tempest and a storm, to cover your sky with spatters of blood and your earth with corpses. Now the dark shadow of annihilation is your last refuge in the world, and ruin your last inheritance.
My wrath, thirsty-lipped, will drink your blood;
My fury will give you shelter nowhere.
You are ringed by flames, and your fate with you;
Not even the ocean could put out this fire.

(In the height of passion and fury, Rustam sets out for Samangan)