human
Most High Potentate, Joe began, translating my plain Anglo-Saxon
gpt
Please, sir, into Eastern hyperbolics,
human
I again seek your Excellency's presence to make my obeisance and to crave your permission to transfer to cheap paper some of the glories of this City of Turquoise and Ivory. This, if your Highness will deign to remember, is not the first time I have trespassed. Twice before have I prostrated myself, and twice has your Sublimity granted my request.
gpt
These be troublous times, puffed his Swarthiness through his mustache, his tobacco-stained fingers meanwhile rolling a cigarette; a dark-skinned, heavily-bearded Oriental, this Pasha, with an eye that burned holes in you.
human
You should await a more peaceful season, effendi, for your art.
gpt
On account of the Armenians, your Excellency?
human
Yes.
gpt
But why should I fear these disturbers of the peace, your Supreme Highness? The Turk is my friend, and has been for years. They know me and my pure and unblemished life. They also know by this time that I have been one of the chosen few among nations who have enjoyed your Highness's confidence, and to whom you have given protection. Here my spine took the form of a horseshoe curve--Moorish pattern.
human
As to these dogs of Armenians (this last was Joe's, given with a growl to show his deep detestation of the race--part of his own, if he would but acknowledge it),