Once, a beggar fell
insanely in love with a girl from his kindred. The beggars of the city lived in
groups, and she was the most beautiful girl in his group. The group had a
routine; in the mornings they spread around all the corners of the city and beg
for alms and in the evening they would return to their tents put up on the foot
path and share the money earned and then went to bed.The nights of
the city were very cold and the fortunate ones in the group had rugs to ward
off the cold except for the girl. She never had a rug and so she used to shiver
in the trembling cold, and mourn and shriek in deep slumber asking the cold to
go away.
The beggar saw that
his love suffered in the cold. He felt pity upon her, and so he went to her
tent and put his rug upon her body and wrapped her. And he was content to see
the happiness on her face; she was smiling and cherishing a dream. The beggar
felt the warmth of love and slept in the night, though he shivered and trembled,
the face of his sweet heart put him to a content slumber. In the morning he
took the rug away from her so that she wouldn’t know anything.
Ten days and ten nights
passed, and the beggar continued doing the same; he sacrificed his own rug to protect
her from the cold; and let himself tremble at its audacity. And in the mornings
he would pick it up from her before she woke up.
One day, the beggar got
to know that the girl is in love with another man. Though, his heart shatters
initially, he never loses hope and tells that: ‘I’ve been protecting her and
doing my duty of love. One day she’ll open her eyes when I put the rug around
her body and then she’ll begin to love me.’
But unfortunately,
nothing such happened.
The winter came, and
the snowfall only increased the cold to malicious levels. But yet, the beggar
sacrificed his rug every night. His health began to deplete but nobody cared;
none of the members of the group asked him why.
One night, perhaps on
the coldest night of the winter, the beggar sat outside the girl’s tent
trembling in the cold. He was freezing; he knew he would die soon. As death
approached he looked at his sweet heart for one last time. Whispering something
to her, he finally died.
The group lacked money
and also lacked the concern to bury the dead beggar. He was thrown along the
garbage, and his dead body was feasted by the crows and the dogs.
At the gates of
heaven, the angels stood in awe with garlands and clarets and harps singing,
with every type of food he loved and lots of wine. When he reached, they hugged
him and heartily welcomed him opening the gates; they had never seen such an
act of heavenly love from an earthling.
That day, when the
girl woke up; she wondered who had wrapped her with the rug. But she had other
things in her mind: she was to elope with the man whom she loved that evening.
And thus she ran away with her sweet heart and
lived a happy life; although, at times she complains of dreams of a freezing
man whispering something into her ears. A queer whisper that said: When
will you open your eyes my love.
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