The Trial of the Book: Kalila and Dumna

text The Trial of the Book: Kalila and Dumna A Play in One Act Mueen Bsissu Translated from the Arabic by Admer Gouryh A courtroom. In the front is a large chair in which sits the Judge with a guard on each side of him. The Bearer of the Sultan's Inkwell stands far right. A small crowd sits on rugs. The Court Clerk stands at the entrance. The Judge points to the Court Clerk. CLERK: (Calling out.) Heretic, son of a heretic father, son of a heretic mother, author of Dumna and Kalila. VOICE 1: The Clerk has judged him before the Judge. Has the Clerk risen to such lofty heights? VOICE 2: Don't underestimate the value of the Clerk, my friend. I am a barber and I know the worth of men. I shave the Clerk's beard. VOICE 1: 1 speak, my friend, about the canon; I speak not about the Clerk's beard. VOICE 2: But the Clerk's beard will lead to the Judge's beard. Oh, what a beard has our Judge! And the Judge's beard will lead to a minister's beard, thence to a prince's beard and thence to the Sultan's. (Mumbling and clamor at the entrance to the courtroom. Abdulla Bin alMuqafa enters with chains on his hands and feet.) VOICE 3: What has he done that his hands and feet are chained? 94 VOICE 4: They say-I don't know-that he has translated a book, or written one, perchance. VOICE 3: Upon what subject is this book? VOICE 4: Rumor has it that in this book the birds and animals do speak. VOICE 3: What book is this, what era this, that man is mute while birds and animals speak out? VOICE 4: Shhhh. This is the time of Calif al-Mansur, this is the time of enlightenment; this is the time when the vulture's crowned queen. Who is it can tell the bird from the fish? VOICE 3: Praise be the Sultan, my Lord. He has saved me from the sins of scribes. VOICE 4: What do you mean? VOICE 3: I have never plunged a finger in an inkwell! Listen. Here comes the Bearer of the Sultan's Inkwell, the Keeper of the Sultan's Pen. Shhhh. He speaks. BEARER: My lauded Judge, Your Honor, the man before you brought is accused of two misdeeds. JUDGE: Bearer of the Sultan's Inkwell, your rhythms here are music to my ear. BEARER: This man, my Lord, has betrayed the Sultan. He has translated, perhaps written a book wherein various birds and animals speak. JUDGE: Betrayed the Sultan? BEARER: Your Honor, my Lord, who shines like a star in our darkness, who knows more than thee of the state of our nation? The accused in your presence writes only in symbols, speaks not but in symbols; what can this mean, Lord, save slander and treason? JUDGE: Pray tell us why the accused writes in symbols? Wherein can this slander and treason be found? BEARER: In the name of the Sultan, my Master, I accuse this man first 95 of the use of symbolsfor honest men pen words that all can understand. But in Kalila, Lord, and Dumna, the bird and animal do narrate while man sits by and listensas if we lived in times when people dared not speak their minds. These tales now lie on every common lip; the baker reads, the shoemaker narrates, the woodcutter interprets the text. Intrigue, my Lord. Beware intrigue when symbols spring from common tongue to ear. Beware intrigue! And so, my Lord, I charge this man with double sin: he has betrayed both Lexicon and Law. JUDGE: Justice here, oh Bearer of the Sultan's Inkwell, ascribes to the accused the right to speak out in his own behalf or summon witnesses. ABDULLA: My Lord, it was and is my book that speaks in my behalf. It's written; it is copied. Thus will I speak not, but ask instead that you call upon the lion to give his testimony. BEARER: My Lord, oh seeker of justice, the accused procrastinates while the charge is as bright...