A man named Nasuh, soft of feature
Was often mistaken for a female creature
Satan filled his head with lies
And promises, and suggested he disguise
Himself as a woman and find employ
In the Princess’s bathhouse. O what joy
He could derive, shampooing the women’s hair
And massaging their bodies, what rare
pleasures he would undoubtedly derive
With a permanent hard, what a way to be alive!
So Nasuh did just that. He spent his days
In lustful heaven, to Satan be praise!
Except that soon he heard the voice of his own guilt
Which whispered, “Nasuh you are damned, you built
Your pleasure dome on quicksand, it could sink
If you are caught and executed. Think!”
And foreswear Satan, shun the horned beast
Who leads to famine disguised as a feast.
Hearing this, young Nasuh turned to pray
Acknowledging that he had lost his way.
He sought the advice of a Sufi guide
Who said that men who ran could seldom hide.
The Sufi said that prayer would intervene
And show him pleasures he had never seen
Nasuh, though chastised, felt like a trapped cur.
Next day the bathhouse was in a mighty stir
The Princess was missing a pair of pearls
The suspects were, of course, the bathhouse girls.
The poor girls were told that they’d be whipped
If they did not submit, so they were stripped.
Nasuh was shampooing a lady’s head
And feasting on this naked female spread
And losing concentration Nasuh dropped
The shampoo kettle and his client stopped
Looking in the mirror and turned round
And Nasuh knew that he would now be found
Out and began running towards the door,
When the head eunuch said, “None can leave the floor!
Till I say so and you, take off your robe!”
The game was up, the attendant would probe
His body and delve every orifice
The eunuch asked Nasuh, “Now, what’s amiss?”
The only way out now was to confess
That he had several times seen the Princess
Naked as a blossom, from toe to tits
A crime for which he would be chopped to bits.
His heart sank as though it were made of stone
His stomach cramped, he felt very alone
And just as he surrendered to his fate
A eunuch shouted, “Found them! God is great!”
So did he dodge the executioner’s sword?
And did he drop and give praise to the Lord?
You bet! He prayed, “I thought my time had come,
Forgive, forgive . . .” but Nasuh was struck dumb.
He would forever be downcast, alone
Knowing only he knows, what he has known.