HASSAN
Alas, O Serene Splendour, thy servant is a man of humble origin
and limited desires. I am one who would obey the old poet's behest:

Give all thy day to dreaming and all thy night to sleep:
Let not Ambition's Tyger devour Contentment's Sheep!

I am not one to open my mouth at divans, or to strut among courtiers
in robes of state. Sir, excuse me from these things.
Dispose thy favour like a high golden wall, and protect
the life of your servant from the wind of complication.
But at evening, when God flings roses through the sky,
call me then to some calm pavilion, and let us hear Ishak play
and let us hear Ishak sing, till you forget you are Lord of all the World,
and I forget I am a base-born tradesman; till we discover the speech
of things that have no life, and know what the clods of earth
are saying to the roots of the garden trees.

CALIPH
Have no fear. You shall inhabit the place I shall assign you
in untroubled peace, and meditate till your beard grows
into the soil and you become wiser than Aflatun.
But in this case you are a witness and must be present at my divan,
be it but for this once only. And you shall call me Emir of the Faithful,
Redresser of Wrong, the Shadow of God on Earth, and Peacock of the World.
But in this garden you are Hassan, and I am your friend Haroun,
and you must address me as a friend a friend.

HASSAN
(Kissing the CALIPH's hand) O master, you speak gently,