In this novel, which has a real-historical background, at the same time the worlds of “The Abyss of Hungry Eyes” and “The Way of the Sword” are closely connected. With a completely independent storyline, the book is to a certain extent the first part of the “Path of the Sword” cycle - for the action here takes place several hundred years before the “Path”... The Arab poet of the 10th century al-Mutanabbi is a man of words and a man of the sword, a man of the road and a man... just a man, in the full sense of the word. But first of all, he is a poet, even if his sword strikes without a miss; and the life of a poet is his song. “I’ll take it myself” is a brilliant allegorical poem about the fate of al-Mutanabbi, the emir and almost the Shahinshah, who threw away his sword to go down in history as a poet. And this fate, oh, how difficult it is... At the very beginning of the book, the hero, having survived a duel with an ardent Bedouin, almost immediately dies under the simoom - in order to end up in another life, in hell (which to someone else would seem like paradise). In this hell, the Shah, whose title the poet acquires, is not just a Shah; he is the bearer of farr, forcing everyone around him to obey his slightest whims. And not just obey, hiding anger - no, obey with joy, changing your soul, like the pictures on the display screen. Yesterday's rival becomes a devoted friend, women are ready to surrender at the first hint, and even a night robber rushes at the Shah only to quench the ruler's thirst for battle. What a torment such a life turns out to be for a poet, accustomed to dealing with a cruel, but real world! And how difficult is his path to freedom - after all, for this he will have to grapple with farr himself, with black magic that has turned the world into a puppet theater. And no matter how much you conquer Kabir with the sword, it will not change anything, because the root of all troubles is in you, in you-proud, in you-stubborn, in that very you who refuses to accept life as alms, annoyingly shouting: “I’ll take it myself!”