There is a story of Shirin and Farhad, a very well-known story of Persia. There was a stone-cutter and he was laboring at a memorial for somebody. One day he saw a lady who was to be the future queen of the Shah; and he said to her, "I love you." A stone-cutter, a laborer in the street, asking for the hand of a lady who was to be the future queen! He was a man without reason; but not a man without feeling. Feeling was there, and the claim came with feeling.

This lady said, "Very well, I will wait and see if your claim is true, and tell the Shah of Persia to wait." And to try him she told him to cut a way through the mountains. He went, one man with hammer and chisel. He did not ask if he was able to do it or not. There was no reason; there was only feeling. And he made the road which thousands of people would not have made in a year, because every time he hammered the rock he called out the name of Shirin, the one he loved. He made the way, and when the king heard that it was finished he said, "Alas, I have lost my chance, what shall I do?" Someone in the presence of the king said, "I will see what can be done."

He went to Farhad the stone-cutter and told him, "How wonderful is your love and devotion! It is phenomenal. But haven't you heard that Shirin is dead?" "Is she dead?" he said. "Then I cannot go on living." And he fell down lifeless.