The Man and the Peris

There was a man who went to live with the peris, flying away to fairyland.
"A wolf must have killed him," people said, "or perhaps a highwayman."
His wife married again.
His children grieved for him, but then forgot and became caught up in their everyday lives.
Then, after many years, he returned. He lived with his grown children, telling them stories of his life with the peris.
He did not stay.
After a month he vanished just as he had done before, and no one saw him again.
The peris had ravished his soul; he could not leave them.


Inspired by: The English prose version of Rumi in More Tales from the Masnavi by A. J. Arberry.
Notes: This is story 192 in the book. Rumi tells the story of "Abd al-Ghauth" but Arberry notes that the name appears to be fictitious. For more about the peris (fairies), see Wikipedia.



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