BRAINS CONFOUNDED BY THE ODE OF ABŪ SHĀDŪF EXPOUNDED, PART TWO
An Account of the Lineage of the Poet and Its Components
The Origins of His Good Fortune in His Early Days and How Fate Came to Turn Against Him
The Ode of Abū Shādūf with Commentary
And more inauspicious than him …
And from the descent of the Inspectors …
And on the day when the tax collectors come …
And I flee next to the women …
Almost all my life on the tax …
And on the day when the corvée descends …
And nothing has demolished me …
And nothing has made me yearn …
Happy is he who sees bīsār come to him …
Happy is he who sees a bowl …
Happy is he to whom comes a basin …
Happy is he who gobbles energetically …
Happy is he who drinks a crock …
Happy is he to whom mussels come …
If I see next to me one day a casserole …
When shall I see mallow …
When shall I see grilled beans …
When shall I see that he’s ground the flour …
Ah how good is vetch-and-lentils …
Ah how fine is toasted bread …
And I’ll sit with one knee crooked …
Happy is he who finds himself next to rice pudding …
Happy is he who fills his cap with a moist little cheese …
Happy is he who sees his mother’s bowl full …
And I’ll sit down to it with ardor …
Now I wonder, how is milk …
Now I wonder, how is flaky-pastry …
Should I see the bowl of the son of my uncle …
Me, my wish is for a meal of fisīkh …
Happy is he who has seen in the oven …
And made faṭāyir cakes …
Happy is he who sees a casserole …
Happy is he who sees in the refuse dump …
If I live I shall go to the city …
And I’ll steal from the mosque …
And I’ll get me a felt cap …
And by me will sit …
And I’ll rejoice in the throng …
And I close my ode with blessings …
Some Miscellaneous Anecdotes with Which We Conclude the Book
Let Us Conclude This Book with Verses from the Sea of Inanities