If an audience could be arranged and also my safe return this is what I'd tell the Sultan This is what he'd learn: O Sultan, my master, if my clothes are ripped and torn it is because your dogs with claws are allowed to tear me. And your informers every day are those who dog my heels, each step unavoidable as fate. They interrogate my wife, at length, and list each friend's name. Your soldiers kick and beat me, force me to eat from my shoes, because I dare approach these walls for an audience with you. You have lost two wars and no one tells you why. Half your people have no tongues. What good their unheard sigh? The other half, within these walls, run like rabbits and ants, silently inside. If I were given safety from the Sultan's armed guards I would say, O Sultan, the reason you've lost wars twice was because you've been walled in from mankind's cause and voice. _______________________ Translated by Diana Der Hovanessian and by Lena Jayyusi