THE KING - Kader Abdolah

Maastricht - Holland 2015

It was late at night.  [...] He leafed back to the chapter he had written about his visit to Holland.  His heart almost broke with longing when he read it.  

We rode into the Amsterdam train station, and there waiting for us were the mayor, a couple of generals and the city's chief of police.  [...]  Amsterdam is a beautiful city.  The streets are clean and the houses are like biscuit tins stacked on top of each other.  You would think the city had been made by children.  

We rode through the city by coach, and an enormous throng of people stood  long the streets to  admire us.  We have seen many beautiful women.  I believe there are no ugly women in that country.  
[...] The people had never seen a Persian before, let alone a Persian King.  They waved at us, and some of the women blew us kisses with their hands.  This mad us feel uneasy, but we enjoyed ourselves.  That night we stayed in an extraordinary hotel on a canal.  It was very clean and we slept well.  They are refined people, the Dutch.  No one brays like a donkey at night.

[..] But in the Lahe, The Hague, we looked death in the eyes.  We had gone to that city to pay a visit to their parliament and to meet their vizier.  Here too the people were extremely happy to see us.  [...]  They shouted slogans and welcomed us, clapping their hands.  [...]  All those people made the poor horses skittish and nervous.  [...] The horses raced over the lawns and the doorsteps.  The coach ran into lamp post and got stuck.  The guards hastened to assist us and pulled us out.  The people looked on in shock [...] For a moment there was silence.  Then cheering burst forth: 'Long live the shah!'

Our eyes were filled with tears.  Lovely people.

THE KING
Kader Abdolah

Maastricht - Holland 2015