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

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СКАЧАТЬ (“wring me”)¹²⁰ and taḥnīnī (“tenderly”) constitute “perfect paronomasia,”¹²¹ the first being from inḥināʾ (“bending”), the second from taḥannun (“tenderness”) and “having pity” (shafaqah), as is clear.

      11.2.11

      One also speaks of ʿidhār munamnim (“creeping fuzz”) on a young man’s cheek, meaning that the down resembles the creeping of the nimnim or of the nammām plant as it sprouts. Comparing it to the creeping of the nimnim, I wrote:

      The down crept o’er his cheeks; it seemed to me

      To be nimnim moving lazily.

      11.2.12

      Some have added a fourth type of vermin and named it liḥḥīs (with i after the l and double ḥ), of the measure of baʿbīṣ or liqqīs, baʿbīṣ being taken from baʿbaṣah, which is “the insertion of a digit between the buttocks of another,” while liqqīs is from liqāsah (“licking”); one says, “The dog licked (laqisa) the dish,” meaning “it licked it clean (laḥisahu) with its tongue.”¹²² Thus there is a kind of resemblance to the liḥḥīs; or it may be that the word is formed according to the analogy of Fuṭays.¹²³ The words liḥāsah and najāsah are of the same pattern; one says, “So-and-so is laḥis,” that is, “one who has committed something resembling impurity (najāsah) or who talks a great deal to no effect.”¹²⁴ Thus liḥāsah and najāsah have the same underlying meaning. In The Blue Ocean and Piebald Canon it says, “There is no difference between liqāsah and liḥāsah, and undoubtedly najāsah enters into it too,” and this is the more correct formulation. One also says, “You are taʿīs laḥis,” that is, you resemble a dog licking a dish, or you lick shit with your tongue, or you talk raving nonsense (tatalaḥḥas bi-l-kalam) and cannot tell a thing from its name. Taʿīs has the same meaning, making all of them closely similar expressions, which is why the liḥḥīs are so harmful.¹²⁵ In The Blue Ocean and Piebald Canon it says:

      And I suffer torments from the harm the liḥḥīs do to my head,

      And a boiling and an itching in my clothes and in my body.

      The paradigm¹²⁶ is laḥḥasa, yulaḥḥisu, talḥīsan.

      11.2.13

      If it be said, “This liḥḥīs added by the people you refer is insignificant, almost to the point of nonexistence, and this is why the poet, like others, leaves it out, so why do you raise the issue at all?” we would reply, “True. However, even if we grant that it is so minute that it barely exists, nevertheless it becomes, in bulk, unmitigated harm and injury and on this basis is to be associated with lice, and indeed it should be counted among the latter’s offspring, just like the nits and the nimnim mentioned above. Alternatively, the issue is raised by analogy to those who add a fourth category to the parts of speech and name it ‘the residual,’ meaning by this the verbal substantive, namely, ṣah (‘Hush!’) in the sense of uskut (‘Be silent!’).”¹²⁷ Thus the situation now’s revealed, the silliness no more concealed.

      11.2.14

      fī ṭawqi jubbatī (“in the yoke of my jubbah”): that is, I speak of those lice and nits that are existing or well established in its yoke. Ṭawq (“yoke”) is of the pattern of jawq (“band of musicians”), as used in the expressions jawq al-ṭabbālah (“the band of drummers”) and jawq al-maghānī (“the singing band”) and so on. It is the name given to anything that encircles the neck, of a garment or of anything else, be it made of iron, silver, gold, brass, or the like.¹²⁸ The Almighty says, «That which they hoard will be their collar on the day of resurrection,»¹²⁹ meaning that the wealth that they store up in this world and on which they do not pay tithes and which they do not use for good works will be placed around their necks like a collar, and they will be tormented by it in the Fire. The word ṭawq is derived from ṭāqah (“aperture”) or from ṭawāqī (“skullcaps”), because of its roundness, or from the Khān of Abū Ṭaqiyyah in Cairo. The paradigm¹³⁰ is ṭawwaqa, yuṭawwiqu, taṭwīqan. The women of the countryside make their neck rings of silver, calling them also ḍāmin, and they regard them as the best of ornaments. The type of collar that is placed on the necks of men in prison is called a ḍāminah; one says, “So-and-so is in the ḍāminah” meaning that this iron device that is on his neck is a guarantee (ḍāminah) for him that he will not be able to get away, just like the man who acts as a guarantor (ḍāmin) for another and produces him when he is summonsed.

      11.2.15

      jubbatī (“my jubbah”): of the measure of shakhkhatī (“my pissing”) and liḥyatī (“my beard”), or so it is if the form refers to oneself; but, if it refers to someone else, you say jubbatak (“your jubbah”) on the pattern of shakhkhatak (“your pissing”) or liḥyatak (“your beard”), for example. If you were describing it and said jubbatak ḥamrah (“Your jubbah is red”), you could change the dots and it would become khanatak Ḥamzah, meaning “a man named Ḥamzah fucked you.”¹³¹ jubbah is the singular of jubab, derived from jabb, which means “cutting,” because the tailor tailors (yajubbu) the jubbah, that is, cuts (yaqṭaʿu) it and pieces it together. One also says jāba l-fayāfī (“he traversed open country”),¹³² meaning “he cut across it (qaṭaʿahā),” and in this vein I said:

      I traverse (ajūbu) the open spaces, greedy for your arms,

      And cross (aqṭaʿu) a land of which I have no knowledge.

      The paradigm is jabba, yajubbu, jabban, and jubbatan.¹³³

      11.2.16

      There are two types: the rural and the urban. The rural type is of thick, coarse wool, closed in front like a thawb. They make the sleeves wide, especially their poets. Indeed, they are known for the excessive width of their sleeves, for the men’s sleeves are made of cut-off sacks and are as wide as those of poets, or wider.¹³⁴ As for their women, their sleeves are wide enough to accommodate a man, who can go in through one and come out by the other; thus a man may have intercourse with his wife via her sleeve without needing to raise the rest of her shift, as I myself have experienced, for I married one of these women and had intercourse with my wife via her sleeve on several occasions—so glory to Him who made them unkempt, even with regard to their sleeves and other raiment, for these are things by them desired, and consistency is required. As the proverb has it, “They saw an ape getting drunk on a dung heap and said, ‘For so pellucid a wine what better match than a youth so fine?’ And they saw a buffalo blinkered with a reed mat and said, ‘For so elegant a girl, what better match than so divine a veil?’”¹³⁵ As the poet says:

      I saw a leper deep down in a well

      And another with vitiligo whose shit on him fell.

      Said I, “Behold what your Lord hath wrought—

      The like of a thing attracts its own sort!”

      The urban sort is the one used by the people of the cities, especially scholars and sophisticates. It is of soft, fine wool, and they make СКАЧАТЬ