Olga Hatun

It’s dusk and the first stars have appeared on the pale sky. A grey fog
is blowing in from the east and descends on Bursa like a fine rain of ash.
Olga Sultana paces the length of the vast hall like a tiger. She is glorious
in a tight red dress that echoes the carnation designs on the ceramic tiles
of the walls. Youthful and comely, her vitality is barely contained by the
fluid lines of her elegant body. The pearls of the necklace on her graceful
neck sparkle as they reflect the flickers of light from the golden
chandeliers. She is impatient for the homecoming of her Sultan. Olga is the
daughter of a Bulgarian nobleman. She is only seventeen, but she has been
wedded to Sultan Bayezid, known as Thunderbolt, for more than a year. They
are devotedly in love with each other, but Bayezid, has been waging war in
the Balkans for many months. He hurries to his beloved Olga upon his return
to the palace in Bursa. She is overcome with emotion. She kisses the hem of
Bayezid’s red velvet caftan many times. She murmurs: “My master, my Sultan,
my husband, being far from you was an unbearable pain!” She is speaking
liltingly in her charming accent. “My Lord, please believe me that I have no
life when you’re not by my side. I’ve been crying every single day that you
have been away. My love for you is like an illness with only one cure, and
that cure is you.” Bayezid is humbled by her ardour. He embraces her with
urgency. He too has been ill with longing for his Olga. “You are the light in
my eyes and the flower of my life! And like all lovers who await the sunset
to be with their beloved in the moonlight, I too have been waiting through
this overlong sunset to be with you. A raging fire of desire has been
scorching my heart, a flame so mighty that not all the rivers of this world
could put it out!” The fog has encircled the palace and made it invisible.
The lovers are all alone with each other under a full moon they cannot see.
Finally their night can begin…