Читать книгу Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded, with Risible Rhymes - Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī - Страница 11

AN ACCOUNT OF THE LINEAGE OF THE POET AND ITS COMPONENTS, AND OF THE PLACE THAT TOOK HIM TO ITS BOSOM AND GAVE HIM SHELTER FROM HIS EARLIEST MOMENTS, AND OF THE ORIGINS OF HIS FORTUNE AND HOW IT WAS BROUGHT, AND OF THE NATURE OF HIS BEARD, WHETHER IT WAS LONG OR SHORT, AND OF HOW, AT THE END, BY FATE HE WAS O’ERTHROWN, AS A RESULT OF WHICH HE COMPOSED THIS ODE FOR WHICH HE BECAME FAMOUS AND WELL KNOWN

HIS LINEAGE

10.1

We declare: opinions differ concerning his lineage. Some state that he was Abū Shādūf son of Abū Jārūf son of Shaqādif son of Laqāliq (Storks) son of Baḥlaq (Goggle-Eye) son of ʿAflaq (Big Flabby Vagina) son of ʿAfr (Dust) son of Duʿmūm son of Falḥas¹ son of Kharā Ilḥas (Lick-Shit). If you ingest these words with your rational faculty, you will realize that this is the end of his ancestry. Others, however, say he was Abū Shādūf son of Abū Jārūf son of Bardaʿ (Donkey Saddle) son of Zawbaʿ (Dust Storm) son of Baḥlaq son of ʿAflaq son of Bahdal (Disheveled) son of ʿAwkal son of ʿAmrah² son of Kul Kharā (Eat-Shit). Thus, according to the first version, his genealogy ends with “son of Lick-Shit” and according to the second with “son of Eat-Shit”; however, the second is more correct because to eat shit is more eloquent than to lick it.

HIS VILLAGE

10.2

As for his village, it is a matter of dispute. Some say that he was from Tall Fandarūk and others from Kafr Shammirṭāṭī,³ the latter being correct, for the poet himself says so in some verses of his, to wit:

10.2.1

Me, good people, my words are a guide

And my verses speak true, no tomfooleries hide.

Abū Shādūf am I. My dad told me the tale,

And likewise my grandma, old Umm Nāyil,

Of how, good folk, I was raised

In a hamlet known since olden days

Called Kafr Shammir-lī wa-Tāṭī⁴—

So, Fasāqil,⁵ be a wise laddie!

These are my verses, Abū Shādūf’s my name,

And any who comes to inquire my verse can claim.

10.2.2

And I heard verses by a country person that indicate that he was from Tall Fandarūk, as follows:

We have heard in days old and new

Speech strong as iron and as true—

Of Abū Shādūf they did us tell,

In words very trusty and confirmed as well,

That Tall Fandarūk was his childhood abode,

And there he lived, good people, and composed an ode.

These are my verses, Ghindāf’s my name,

And verse far-fetched is the name of my game!

The two versions may be reconciled by saying that he was born in Kafr Shammirṭāṭī and raised in Tall Fandarūk.

THE SHAPE OF HIS BEARD

10.3

As for the shape of his beard, some say it was very long, while others say it was moderate in both length and shortness. The two accounts may be reconciled by saying that, at the beginning of his life—when, as we shall see, he enjoyed perfect good fortune and abundant blessings—his beard was long because he groomed it frequently with chicken fat and linseed oil and combed it and tended its hairs and so on; however, when he grew old and his fortunes changed and care and sorrows overtook him, it became less commode-ious⁶ because of his eating dirt and nits and so on. In other words, it grew long at first and then later it grew wide, with the result that its width rendered its length odious, and, as such, there is no contradiction between the two versions. As the poet says:

A beard grew long and got quite nasty,

So that its length became quite odious.

They cut it short and it got much nicer,

When its length was less commode-ious.

10.4

Some say that it is sign of a lack of brains when a man’s head is small and his beard long, and if his name is Yaḥyā as well, he hasn’t a hope of brains at all; and the proverb says, “Long beard, little brain.” Thus it came about that a man had a friend with a long beard who was a teacher of young children.⁷ On one occasion, after he had failed to see him for some days, the man asked after his friend and was told, “He has shut himself up in his house to grieve.” The man thought that he must have lost a child or one of his relatives, so he went to see him and found him grief-stricken and weeping and wailing. “My brother,” said the first, “may God make great your recompense and make good your consolation and have mercy on the departed! Every soul must taste death!” “Think you that one of mine has died?” said the other. “What then?” said the first. “Know,” said the shaykh, “that I was sitting one day when I heard a man recite the following verses:

O Umm ʿAmr, God reward you well,

Give me back my heart, wherever it may be!⁸

Don’t take my heart to make of it your toy—

How can a girl with a young man’s heart make free?

“—so I said to myself, ‘Were not this Umm ʿAmr one of the best and most beautiful of people, these verses would not have been said of her!’ and I fell madly in love with her and shut myself away with her love. Then one day I sat for a while and I heard someone say:

When the donkey went off with Umm ʿAmr,

She never came back, and neither did the donkey

“—so I thought, ‘If Umm ʿAmr were not dead, they would not have made up this verse about her’ and I was overcome with grief and afflicted by sorrow.” This made his friend realize how stupid the man was and he left him and went his way.

10.5

And the story is told that one extremely cold day a certain person was going along when he saw a man with a small head and long beard wearing nothing but a shift and shivering from the cold. Noticing that the man had a white woolen mantle folded under his arm, he asked him, “Why don’t you put on the mantle to protect yourself from the cold?” The man replied, “I’m afraid that the rain will get on it and make it wet, and then it won’t be lovely and new-looking anymore.” This made the man realize how stupid he was and he left him and went his way.

10.6

The finest beard is middling, with hairs of even length, neither long nor short. If it be said, “Pharaoh’s beard was longer than he was tall, by one or two spans, or so it is reported, and even so he was wise and full of insight,” we respond, “The explanation is that the Almighty gave him three miraculous signs, one of them being the length of his beard, which was also green and the like of which was vouchsafed to no other of his sort. He also had a steed that placed its front foot at the farthest point that it could see and raised its hind legs when it ascended and its front legs when it descended. Or it may be said that, even though he possessed extraordinary knowledge, he was effectively bereft of intelligence because he claimed to be divine and perpetrated heinous acts and so on. Thus what we have said is correct as stated above. End.”

10.7

It is said that the most quick-witted and devilishly clever of men are those who have no beard at all. Anyone associating with them must be on guard, because of their great intelligence, breadth of knowledge, and finesse. Thus it happened that a certain king once asked his minister, “Who are the most devilishly clever and quick-witted of men?” and the minister answered, “Those who have no beard.” “I want you,” said the king, “to demonstrate the truth of that for me.” Said the minister, “You must prepare some food and make spoons for the food, each spoon three cubits in length, and order people to come and eat. When the people have come and sat down, order them to eat with nothing but those spoons and tell them that no one may touch the spoon except by the handle and that he may eat in no other way. Then watch what happens.” The king did as the minister instructed him, and the people came for the food. When they sat down, he ordered that they eat only with the spoons and told them that no one should touch any part of the spoon but the handle, as described. They wanted to eat but could not, and they wanted to leave, but the king stopped them and ordered them to sit. One of them would fill the spoon and try to put what was in it in his mouth, but it would miss his mouth and stick out over his shoulder, and no one knew what to do. While they were thus engaged, a man with no beard entered. “How is it that you are not eating the food?” he asked, so they told him the problem. “That’s easy,” he said, “I will show you a stratagem that will allow you to eat without disobeying the king’s command: each one of you will feed the man sitting opposite him, and that man likewise will feed the one who feeds him. That way you will eat your fill with the spoons as they are.” So this man started feeding morsels to that one and likewise that man to this one till all had eaten their fill. The king was amazed at the beardless man’s stratagem and the force of his cunning and his great insight and ordered that he be given a gift and bestowed a robe of honor on the minister.

10.8

And once a beardless man stood before a certain king and brought a complaint against an opponent. The king said to him, “I am amazed at your complaint. After all, you are beardless, and no one should be able to get the better of you.” “Pardon, O king,” replied the man, “but my face has the odd hair, while my opponent is completely smooth, without a single hair on his face!” The king laughed and gave the man his due against his opponent and ordered that he be given a gift.

THE ORIGINS OF HIS GOOD FORTUNE IN HIS EARLY DAYS AND HOW FATE CAME TO TURN AGAINST HIM

10.9

As for the origins of the poet’s good fortune in his early days and how fate came to turn against him, accounts differ. One says that, when he was grown and had reached ten years of age, he was strong, lusty, and well versed in pasturing flocks, gamboling in fields, and walking barefoot and naked in the heat, and that he would haul wet manure on his head from the field to his house in the shortest time imaginable, so that the liquid released would run over his face, and from this, if he ever got thirsty, he would drink; and sometimes what ran down from it would cover the rest of his body, as is typically the case among country boys. And he would go for a month or even two without giving his face a wash, unless he should happen to get doused in urine by a calf or a cow as he was on his way to or from the fields, in which case he would rub it in with his hand, using it in place of water to wash his face. Despite this fatuous cleanliness, he never passed up an opportunity to beat up the other children, play ball around the village quarters, gambol on the dung heaps and threshing floors, play at dārah and on the drums and zummārah, making a tumult and wild sounds, and beating the hounds, and other crud and crap, to the point that he was the one among his companions who knew best how to make two days of every one and of every month two. As the Bard of the Two Villages⁹ put it:

10.9.1

Abū Shādūf from day one’s been cocky—

Like a puppy he bounces all over

And goes to Abū Maʿrah’s field and gathers

Fresh dung on a platter.

He’ll be naked, with a load on his head,

And his face like the face of an ogre,

And the wet dung that’s gone runny

Will have run down upon him, and there’s nothing brave in his manner.

He goes for a month without washing his face,

Or for two, and his body’s still got power:

10.9.2

After sweeping the threshing floors all morning long,

He’ll still dash about like our bitch Umm Ṣarwah.

How fine you look, Abū Shādūf (when

He comes to the buffaloes and falls into ordure

And gets down and wallows there behind them).

You’d say you were the afreet of some cloister!

All his life Abū Shādūf’s been pampered:

Like a puppy dog he grew up among us and scampered.

Abū Shādūf, God grant him ease,

Put on a cap and today has a sheepskin fur.

Today his father’s shaykh of the hamlet and sits

Knee to sandal with the tax collector.

10.9.3

The first says, “Master!” The other, “You pimp!

Cough up the taxes or I’ll use you others to deter.”

This is from the likes of Abū Shādūf and his grandfather¹⁰

And his father and his father’s sister, Umm Faswah’s¹¹ daughter,

And we close our words with praise for Muḥammad—

How many a calamity he has swept away, God’s Messenger!

On him, O Lord, pour blessings and peace,

As on his noble companions, of knightly order!

10.10

Indeed, people used to envy his father for having a son so strong and so smart and such an expert at banging the drum and playing the zummārah. Now, his father had acquired, in the course of his life, a lame donkey, two goats, a share in the ox that turned the waterwheel, half a cow, ten hens with their rooster, four bushels of bran, and two quarterns of barley. He also owned about four hundred dung cakes and a bin in which he stored chicken droppings during the winter, and he had a broken water jug, a striped earthenware water butt, a besom to sweep the threshing floor, and a dog to guard the house. Once he had achieved this state of luxury, he died and passed into the mercy of the Almighty, in keeping with the common rule that the day a poor man gets rich, he dies—a point well made by the poet¹² who said:

When a thing’s complete, decline sets in.

Expect extinction when men say, “Done!”

10.11

So his son Abū Shādūf wrapped him in a cloak of combed linen and buried him in a grave known as “the grave of Ibn Kharūf” at the acacia trees of Kafr Shammirṭāṭī, or, as some say, at Kafr Tall Fandarūk; but the two statements may be combined, in which case one would say, “He died in Kafr Shammirṭāṭī and was buried in Kafr Tall Fandarūk.” His grave is now known as “the grave of Abū Jārūf,” and the peasants visit it and play ball next to it, and the animals urinate on it from time to time. A country poet elegized him in the following lines:

10.11.1

Ah come, good people, to my aid,

And weep, mushāh, time and again!

Abū Jārūf today away from us has turned,

While his goat and cow remain.

He’s left his father’s brother’s daughter, Umm Falḥas,¹³

In an empty chamber today to weep and complain,

And Abū Shādūf bawls fit to burst,

“My father’s dead and it’s all gone awful again!”

Gone is the hamlet’s shaykh who ruled

O’er the brave lads and all those men!

10.11.2

And when, to go raiding, he used to mount

His dog and primp and preen,

And put his cap atop his head—

His beard sticking out and looking mean—

And about him were Jarw Ibn Kharā Inta Falḥas¹⁴

And the mushāh of the hamlet, none worth a bead,

You’d have said he was head of a band of musicians,

Or the buffoon who’d come to plead!

Gone now is his fart, God bless his bones

And moisten his head-brick¹⁵ time and again!

10.11.3

As to Abū Shādūf, God preserve his youth

And make him our shaykh, to rule to our gain,

Like his father mounted, and may his army

Troop after troop after troop contain,

And may he buck like a donkey and set off around noon

And lounge about pompously and sit in the shirāʿah.¹⁶

Thus we end our words, and God alone endures,

And death’s a cup from which none may abstain!

And I’m a smart guy and all my life a poet,

And I string together verses that shimmer and shine.

10.11.4

These I’ve made so all who behold them may mourn,

And today with my words I’ve sent him off fine,

And for the rest of my days I’ll praise the Beauteous,

God’s Prophet, and pray his intercession to gain.

Now the blessing’s done, so hear what I say:

I hope you’re all snuffed by a clot on the brain!

10.12

And when the wake was over and the dust had settled and Abū Shādūf had received the condolences of the shaykhs and the brave lads, and he had distributed bran-and-barley pastries as alms for the repose of his father’s soul and had plastered his grave with mud and dung, and built the calf’s trough next to it, he put his cudgel over his shoulder and stepped out like a fine steed, and played the shaykh over the hamlet, and every Zayd and ʿAmr¹⁷ obeyed, and he sat on his ass with one knee up and one knee on the ground, and shouted and jumped, both up and down, and sang and made up poetry, of which he was proud, declaiming and saying out loud:

10.12.1

Me, Abū Shādūf—O Salāmah¹⁸—

All my life I’ve made up verses and I’m a bright guy,

And now my father’s in his grave¹⁹

I’m shaykh of the hamlet, which none can decry!

And I rule the foot soldiers and come and go,

And I wade in the river up to my thigh,

And I saddle my donkey and mount, around me

A company like to a candle in the night sky,

With Abū ʿUntūz and Abū Buzbūz²⁰ and ʿAflaq,

While Blood-Lick-the-Back-of-Your-Neck and Abū ʿimāmah²¹ are nigh.

10.12.2

These days the world doesn’t hold my like,

And I’ll boss you forever and go on being a helluva guy,

And with my cudgel I’ll break the bones and smash the pate

Of any who disobey.

My father before me was shaykh over you,

So let me be, and be on your way!

And we close our words with praise of Muḥammad

And his dandy companions, the people of generosity!

10.13

At this the shaykhs and the brave lads envied him the shaykhdom of the hamlet, to which he had succeeded after his father’s death, and they incited the authorities against him, and the latter sent for him and deprived him of a part or, as some say, of all of it, and he had nothing to fall back on but the binful of droppings, which he had kept out of sight and which had been the source of his prosperity after his father’s death, or so they say. However, he set about sucking up to people and flattering them, until the matter was forgotten and the winter came and he opened the bin one night and sold the droppings and made a good living, according to this version of events. Others, however, say that he borrowed twenty silver pieces and bought eggs with them and went to Cairo, where he happened to arrive on the feast of the Christians,²² so he sold the eggs for more than they were worth, and this was the source of his prosperity. The two versions may be reconciled by saying that he sold the droppings and bought eggs with the proceeds, so that his prosperity was the sum of the price of the droppings and the price of the eggs, and from this perspective there is no contradiction. And he took to handing out money and dispensing hospitality, and poets and men of letters from the farthest hamlets sought him out. One poet he rewarded with fifty eggs and a measure of barley, and to another he gave a hundred dung cakes, and yet another brought him a sack, which he filled with droppings from top to bottom and gave him in payment. He became even richer than his father, for he had two geese, twenty roosters, a chicken hutch made out of palm ribs, a crooked staff, a felt cap, a tattered blue shift, a basket full of bran, ten bunches of dry carrots, and other stuff too, and he continued thus, with the Lord blessing his prosperity—for prosperity comes from the Almighty alone.

10.14

In illustration of which, we might mention that it happened that a certain righteous man was very poor. Once, while asleep, he heard a voice say to him of a sudden, “You! Go to such-and-such a place and take from there a thousand dinars!” “Has the Lord blessed them?” he asked. “No,” said the voice. “Leave me!” said the man. Then the voice came to him again and said, “Go to such-and-such a place and take from there five hundred dinars!” “Has the Lord blessed them?” he asked. “No,” said the voice. “Leave me!” said the man. The voice kept coming to him again and again, until it said to him, “Go to such-and-such a place and take from there one dinar!” “Has the Lord blessed it?” he asked. “Yes,” said the voice. “Then I will take it,” said the man, and he went and he took the dinar and was blessed in it and obtained great ease and abundant riches, for if a man is content with what he has he will not suffer want, and the little he has will be blessed. As says the Righteous Saint and Initiate of the Almighty, My Master Yaḥyā al-Buhlūl,²³ may the Almighty be pleased with him and benefit us and all Muslims through him, amen:

Be content with the little you have

And God will give you much!

And he says:

How many a cloud after sprinkling

Lets fall a heavy shower!

10.15

And al-Shāfiʿī,²⁴ may God be pleased with him, has said:

I found acceptance of my lot a treasure house of riches,

And to its skirts began to cling.

Now no man finds me at his door

Or chasing him for anything.

I move among mankind without a single cent

And have no wants, just like a king.

10.16

Thus it was till fate and fortune against him turned, and he was by relatives and boon companions spurned, and all that he had owned was spent, and he found himself in the greatest woe and severest predicament, of all friends and helpers bereft, no wealth remaining but what his father’d left, and those who were once his servants took over the shaykhdom of the hamlet, while he could find neither helper nor friend—for such is the way of Fate: it raises up the lowly, and brings down the noble and exemplary, it being like a balance in its action, or like a sieve in its working and extraction—as the poet²⁵ says in the following verses:

I see Fate lifts every scoundrel high

And humbles those with noble traits—

Just like the sea, which drowns all living things

While every stinking carcass to its surface levitates,

Or like the scale, which raises all that’s light

But sinks with weights.

10.17

And another has said:

Fate’s like a sieve in how it works,

So wonder at what the sieve achieves—

The densest grains it puts below,

And on the top the husks and chaff it leaves

—for the accidents of Fate may be cause for alarm, and drive a man into the way of harm.

10.18

In the opening lines of an ode of mine on the same theme I say:

The accidents of Fate may be to your peril—

So beware their outcome and escape any harm that might transpire.

Prepare against them an ample coat of mail from patience,

To protect you from their fierceness when showered with their fire

And leave behind the time of youth—its boughs have dried

That in the verdant nursery once were full of juice.

They were nights bowed down with pleasures

From which, when young, I gathered glory’s fruits

—and so on to the end of these verses.

10.19

Nothing but “patience fair”²⁶ against the accidents of Fate can remedy afford—that, and submission to the Majestic Lord; and apropos of those caught unawares by fate’s blows and abandoned by kin and fellows, is the story that is told of how a certain envious person slandered the vizier and calligrapher Ibn Muqlah—who was unique in his age for the sublime beauty of his hand—claiming that he had cheated the king in some matter. The king, in consequence, ordered Ibn Muqlah’s hand cut off. After the command had been carried out, Ibn Muqlah kept to his house, while his friends and dear ones abandoned him and up to the middle of the day no one came to see him. Then the king discovered that the accusation against him was false, ordered that the man who had slandered him be killed, and restored Ibn Muqlah to his previous position, repenting that he had had his hand cut off. When Ibn Muqlah’s brethren saw that he was returned to favor, they came back to him and visited him to make their excuses, at which he recited the following verses:²⁷

Man and time succeed each other in reciprocity,

So, as time is, man must too be.

Fate savaged me for half a day,

And man’s nature was thus revealed and made clear to me.

O you who turned away,

Return, for time itself’s turned back to me.

It is said that he continued to write with his left hand for the rest of his life, and his writing did not change to the day he died.

10.20

A curious anecdote attesting to Ibn Muqlah’s mastery of the language relates that a man once wrote something on a scrap of paper and tossed it to him in the presence of the king for him to read to him, and every word contained the letter r, which Ibn Muqlah could not pronounce. The message read as follows: “The ruler of rulers requires a spring drilled right by the road so every transient and traveler may drink.” After glancing at it, Ibn Muqlah changed the words and kept the meaning, saying: “The king of kings commands that a well be dug next to the wadi, so all who come and go may wet their whistles.” This was an example of his extraordinary skill with words, may the Almighty have mercy on him. It is said there are four men whose qualities have become proverbial: Ḥassān ibn Thābit for eloquence, Luqmān for wisdom, Ibn Adham for self-denial, and Ibn Muqlah for beauty of writing and script. Said the poet, describing these four:

Ḥassān’s tongue and Ibn Muqlah’s hand,

The wisdom of Luqmān and the self-denial of Ibn Adham,

Were these brought together in one bankrupt,

And he were hawked for sale, he’d not bring in one dirham.

10.21

As for the opposites of these four,²⁸ how well the poet put it in the following lines:

Uṭrūsh is odious, Ibn Qaynah discourteous,

Qarnān’s credulous, and Ibn Ayham’s obstreperous.

Were all these faults combined in one with wealth endowed,

He’d be “the people’s orator” whenever he made a sound!

10.22

Concerning another who was caught unawares by Fate’s blows and overcome by oppression and woes—so that after he was exalted he became debased, and after riches saw his wealth effaced—is the story that is told of a man who was burdened with debts and left his children and wandered aimlessly until he came to a high-walled city, mightily built. He entered, abject and broken in spirit, devoured by hunger and exhausted by travel, and was walking along one of its streets when he saw a company of eminent persons proceeding together. He joined them and they came to a place like a king’s palace, and they entered, the man following, and they continued until they came to a man sitting in great state, with pages and servants around him, as though he were the son of a viceroy, and this man, when he saw them, rose to greet them and paid them great honor. The subject of our tale was overcome with amazement and taken aback by the magnificence of the place and the servants and retainers, and he retired in a state of perplexity and apprehension, afraid for his safety, and sat down in a spot far removed from the people, where none could catch sight of him. While he was thus seated, a man came towards him with four hunting dogs dressed in silks and brocades and with gold collars and silver chains around their necks. The man tied each dog in its appointed place and disappeared and returned with four golden dishes filled with sumptuous food and placed before each dog its own dish. Then he went away and left them. The man was so hungry that he started to eye the food, and wanted to go up to one of the dogs and eat with it, but fear prevented him from approaching them. One of the dogs, however, looked at him, understood his plight, and, ceasing to eat, signaled to him to approach. The man drew near, and again the dog made a sign, as though to say, “Eat from this dish,” and drew back from the dish, so the man ate until he was full and wanted to leave. At this, the dog made a sign to him as if to say, “Take this dish with the remaining food,” so the man picked it up and put it in his sleeve and waited a while, but no one came looking for the dish, so he took it and went his way. Then he journeyed to another city and sold the dish and bought goods with the proceeds and made his way to his own town, where he sold what he had and paid off his debts, and his business increased and he found himself in a state of the greatest ease and general good fortune. When some time had passed, he said to himself, “You must make a journey to the city of the owner of the dish and take with you a splendid gift in recompense and pay him back the price of the dish, even though one of his dogs made you a present of it.” So he took a gift befitting the man’s standing and took with him the price of the dish, and he journeyed by day and by night until he came to that city and went up into it, hoping to meet with the man. However, on approaching that place, he nothing saw but crumbling ruins and cawing ravens, dwellings reduced to desolation and all things in deterioration, a sight to leave the heart in a state of agitation and a place turned by Fate into «a scene of devastation».²⁹ As the poet³⁰ says:

Suʿdā’s ghost agliding came and woke me in alarm

At break of dawn, my fellows in their homes yet still asleep,

But when aroused by that night phantom gliding,

I found the house bereft, the tryst too far to keep.

10.23

When the man observed that wasted debris, and beheld what fate had wrought for all to see, perplexity assailed him for sure, and, turning, a pitiful man he saw, his state fit to make the skin creep, the sight of him enough to make a stone weep. “You there!” he said. “What have Fate and time made of the master of this facade? Where are those suns that shimmered and stars that glimmered? What blow upon his edifice could fall that would leave nothing standing but the wall?” That pitiful man responded for his part, moaning from a grieving heart, “Is there not guidance in the Messenger’s words for those who follow his example and heed his admonition that ‘It is God’s right to raise up naught in this Abode that He does not then subject to demolition’? If your question be for good reason and cause, know that there is nothing in the vicissitudes of Fate that calls for pause. I am the master of this place and its erector, its occupant and its constructor, the owner of its shimmering suns and overwhelming sums and master of this place replete with so many a brilliant bauble and slave girl adorable—but Fate turned its back, put servants and money to the sack, and drove me to this present state, catching me unawares with concealed blows with which it lies in wait. However, your question surely is for good cause and reason raised, so inform me of what they may be and cease to be amazed!” The other then related to him his tale, with a lump in his throat and great travail, telling him, “I have brought you a gift such as any might desire, plus the price of your golden dish that I did acquire, for it was a cause of my becoming rich after poverty and of my relief from dire straits and misery.” The man then wagged his head and wailed, and moaned and railed, and he said, “You are crazy, sir, it seems to me, for such a thing can never be. A dog of ours made you a gift of a dish of gold, and I should now go back on that? Never, though I were subject to woe and misery untold! By God, I will not take from you one fingernail sliver, so return in peace to the place whence you came hither!” The man then kissed his feet and hands, and, extolling the other’s worth, set off for his native lands, and, as he left him and was bidding him good-bye, spoke this verse on which the ear must love to dwell:

Gone are the men and the dogs together,

So to men and dogs alike, farewell!

10.24

Likewise the author of this book from fortune’s plots has suffered blows, after the nights had shot him with woe’s arrows from disaster’s bows, so that he found himself, after companionship, on his own, after sweet intimacy, alone, conversing with the stars, wrestling with his cares, over the departure of his dear ones pouring his lament, and hoping—faint hope!—that Fate might yet relent. As the poet says:

Would that I knew—for the world tears friends apart

And the stars of men both wax and wane—

Will the house, after parting, fill once more with cheer,

And will those first days of ours return again?

10.25

However, patience with life’s perfidies is a mark of the noble man:

Patience! You’d rush to thank the Lord of Every Boon

If you but knew what benefits in patience lie!

And know that should you not endure with grace

What by the Pen is writ, you will, perforce, comply!