Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded, with Risible Rhymes. Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī

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СКАЧАТЬ full of bread and meat with broth and said to him, “Eat, city man, and knock it back! There’s no blessing in paucity (qillah)!” that is, “there’s no blessing in paucity of food when accompanied by stinginess, whether you say ‘In the name of God’ or not, even though He be the source of that blessing, for what matters is an ungrudging spirit, even though its owner be poor,” for generosity comforts the heart and covers many a flaw. As the poet says:⁷⁶

      If your flaws are become well known to men,

      And you’re inclined to find for them a cover,

      Assume a mantle of liberality, for any flaw,

      They say, by liberality may be covered over

      —and, as the common saying has it, “Whatever the flaw, generosity covers it.”

      11.1.18

      A Silly Debate: What is the wisdom in deriving qill from qawlaq, or from qullah, or from qalqalah, and how do they fit with one another, and what do these words mean? The Fatuous Response: qawlaq⁷⁷ is the name for a leather thing that is made to keep money in and tied onto the belt on the right thigh; some coffee waiters and others use it. The derivation of qill from qawlaq comes from the latter’s crampedness and its lack of room, since qill denotes a cramped life and lack of ease; thus it fits the meaning from that perspective. As for its derivation from qullah (“water pitcher”), with u after the q, this could be for one of several reasons. It may be because water is retained within it, in which case want and lack of good fortune are analogous to the presence or absence of the water. Alternatively, the fit may lie in the actual narrowness of the qullah and the fact that the water has to pass through narrow holes in order to come out,⁷⁸ and that, when submerged in water, it makes a gurgling sound, as though it were complaining to the water. As the poet says:

      The mug makes a gurgle because it’s in pain:

      It protests to the water what it suffered from the flame.

      This process of firing implies distress and hardship, so it fits with the derivation of qill from that perspective. The third opinion states that it is derived from qalqalah (“agitation, convulsion”). From this point of view qill would be from the agitatedness (qalqalah) of events, that is, the speed with which they move, their intensity, and the distressing circumstances to which they give rise and so on. As the poet⁷⁹ says:

      Stir (qalqil) your stirrups in the steppes (falā)

      And leave the pretty girls at home.

      Like dwellers in the grave to me are those

      Who never from their homelands roam.

      —that is, move your stirrups “in the falā,” which means the wide-open spaces. The meaning is: “Go east and west, and acquire whatever will relieve you of having to beg from others, and be not a burden upon them, and do not humiliate yourself before them, and leave the ghawānī—plural of ghāniyah, which means ‘a female possessed of beauty’; that is, abandon any such and do not allow yourself to be distracted by her from seeking your livelihood, for that distraction may lead to inactivity and idleness, in which case you will not find the wherewithal to spend on her and her heart will turn to someone else, with all sorts of evil consequences. If, on the other hand, you bestir yourself and leave her and then come back with all the things she needs to assuage her hunger and clothe her nakedness, she will stay with you just as your heart would desire and in perfect felicity. And even if you benefit little from your efforts and journeys, what you get will still be better for you than doing nothing.” As the poet says:

      Man must work for what he needs,

      And Fate is not obliged to help.

      In one of the Revealed Books, the Almighty says, “My slave, I created you from motion; move and I will provide for you!” and the proverb says, “In activity is blessing,”⁸⁰ and the Imam al-Shāfiʿī,⁸¹ may the Almighty be pleased with him, says:

      Leave your lands and seek advancement!

      Go abroad, for there are five good things in travel:

      Escape from care and a way to earn your living,

      Knowledge, savoir faire, and the friendship of the noble.

      Though some say travel means abjection in exile,

      And loss of one’s friends and meeting with trouble,

      Still better a young man die than live

      In ignominy ’midst jealousy and tittle-tattle.

      Thus the answer now is clear, all can agree, and the nature of this derivation’s plain to see.

      11.1.19

      jismū (“his body”): the pronoun suffix refers to the poet, that is, “his body” means “his person,” the word being derived from tajassum (“corporeality”) or from al-mujassimah (“the Corporealists”), which is a sect that holds to the doctrine of incarnation and corporealization,⁸² may the Almighty disfigure them, or from jism al-ʿāshiq (“the body of the lover”), when the latter is worn thin by separation from the beloved and the poet can find neither medicine nor doctor for it.

      11.1.20

      mā yaḍal (“is ever”): a rural phrase, meaning mā yazālu, as discussed in Part One.⁸³ That is, his body is never free of want, toil, and discomfort.

      11.1.21

      naḥīf (“thin”): of the measure of raghīf (“loaf”); it is properly naḥīfan, with an alif of prolongation, the latter having been dropped for the meter.⁸⁴ The meaning is that his body became weak and thin from the succession of cares that afflicted it, and the injury and hardship that it had to put up with in the course of making a living and so on—for care weakens and sickens the body, unlike ease and abundance of comforts, from which it will be evident that the bodies of the rich and affluent are in general vigorous, attractive, and graceful, because of the excellence of their food and drink and the cleanliness and fineness of their clothes, and they do not, as a result, suffer any of the ill effects of care. Imam al-Shāfiʿī, may the Almighty be pleased with him, said, “He whose garments are clean has few worries,” and it says in the Tradition, “One’s garments should give glory to God”; if they get dirty, this glorification is brought to a halt. The body, in fact, is like a crop of plants: so long as its owner is careful to water it and tend it and clean out the weeds, it remains full of vigor and glows with good looks, but when he ceases to attend to it, diseases attack it and things take a turn for the worse. In the absence of sickness, on the other hand, slenderness and trimness of the body are desirable characteristics in both women and men, and one possessed of such characteristics is referred to as ahyaf (“slender waisted”). As the poet⁸⁵ says:

      Two slender-waisted creatures,

      One girl, one boy,

      At backgammon played.

      Said she, “I am a turtledove!”

      “Hush!” said I. “You are the moon above!”

      —and СКАЧАТЬ