Story 21: The Lover in the Whirlpool

There was a young man, pure in love and pure in conduct, who had given his heart to a beautiful face. I read that on the great ocean the two of them fell together into a whirlpool. The sailor came to grab his hand, so that he would not die in that moment. But he cried out from the middle of the waves and turmoil: leave me, and take my beloved's hand instead. As he said this, the world turned against him; they heard him giving up his life while he spoke: Do not listen to talk of love from that fraud who forgets his beloved in the hour of hardship. This is how true friends lived their lives; hear it from one who has lost everything, so you may understand. For Saadi knows the ways and customs of love as fluently as an Arab knows his tongue in Baghdad. The sweetheart to whom you have bound your heart, close your eyes to all the rest of the world. If Majnun, lover of Layla, came back to life, he would write his story of love from this very book.