Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded. Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī

11.4.5

      ثمّ بيّن اسمه بقوله (خَنافِرْ) مشتقّ من الخنفرة على وزن الخرخرة أو البربرة يقال رقد فلان وخنفر بمعنى أنّه ردّد النَفَس في حَلْقه وأخرجه من خياشيمه حتّى صار نفسًا عاليًا بخنفرة وبربرة قال الشاعر [طويل]

وَخَنْفَرَ عِنْدَ النَّوْمِ مِنْ خَيْشومِهِ

فَصارَ بِهذا الاِسْمِ يُدْعَى خَنافِرا

      وسمّي بذلك لكثرة خنفرته عند النوم ومصدره خنفر يخنفر خنفرةً فهو خَنْفور على وزن خَنْشور وخَنافر على وزن عَباير واحدتها عبورة وأمّا أخوه فاسمه قادوس على وزن بَعْبُوص وقادوس هذا خلّف ولدين محيلبه وفساقل وخنافر هذا ابنه فكان ضرر الناظم من ابن عمّه وابن أخي ابن عمّه

      Next he states his nephew’s name, by saying

      Khanāfir: derived from khanfarah (“snoring”) of the measure of kharkharah (“snorting”) or barbarah (“jabbering”). One says, “So-and-so slept and snored (khanfar),” meaning that he stored up the breath in his throat and expelled it through his nostrils in such a way as to make a loud breath accompanied with snoring and snorting. Said the poet:

      He snored on sleeping through his nostril

      And thus he got this name—Khanāfir.

      He was so called because he snored so much when sleeping. The paradigm is khanfara, yukhanfiru, khanfaratan, active participle khanfūr,¹⁸¹ of the measure of khanshūr (“tough guy”), while Khanāfir is of the measure of ʿabāyir, plural of ʿabūrah (“sheep”). His brother’s¹⁸² name was Qādūs (“waterwheel jar”), of the pattern of buʿbūṣ (“goosing”); this Qādūs fathered two boys, Muḥaylibah and Fasāqil, and this Khanāfir was the latter’s son, meaning the poet suffered harm from both his paternal cousin¹⁸³ and his paternal cousin’s son.¹⁸⁴

      ٦،٤،١١

11.4.6

      ثمّ بيّن الضرر الحاصل منه بقوله (يقرّط) بضمّ المثنّاة من تحت على وزن يضرّط ويضرط فيها لغتان كمّا تقدّم قال الشاعر [وافر]

فَفِيها ضَرَطَ الواشُون جَمْعًا

فَصارَ ضُراطُهُمْ فيها يَفوحُ

      وهو هنا بمعنى التقريط بالحبل بشدّة وقوّة وأمّا القَرْط بفتح القاف وجزم الراء فهو قرط الزرع وهو أخذ سنبله وإبقاء أصله في أرضه يقال فلان قرط زرع فلان وبضمّ القاف اسم لحَلَقَة صغيرة من لُجَيْن أو فضّة تُعْمَل في أذن الصبيّ وهي ممدوحة خصوصًا الولد الجميل فإنّها تزيده حسنًا وتكسوه حلاوة قال أبو نواس في مطلع قصيدة له [كامل]

ومُقَرْطَقٍ يَسْعَى إلى النُّدَماءِ

بِعَقِيقَةٍ في دُرَّةٍ بَيْضاءِ

      أي إنّ هذا الجمال اللطيف والشكل الظريف الذي زانه هذا القرط واتّصف به صار يسعى على الندماء وبيده خمرة تشبه العقيق في لونها وهي في كأس يشبه الدرّة البيضاء من صفاء جوهره ولطف ذاته ويسقيهم ممّا في يده ويدير عليهم المدام ويلاطفهم برشاقة القدّ وحسن الكلام إلى آخر ما قال

      Next the poet makes plain the harm that he suffered from the latter by saying: yuqarriṭ (“he draws tight”): with u after the y, of the measure of yuḍarriṭ (“he farts audibly and repeatedly”).¹⁸⁵ Yuḍarriṭ has two forms, as already stated.¹⁸⁶

      As the poet has it:

      There the snitches all farted together,

      So their farts wafted everywhere about.

      The word yuqarriṭ is used here in the sense of constricting (taqrīṭ) strongly and forcibly with a rope. Qarṭ with a after the q and no vowel after the r refers to the qarṭ of the crops, namely, taking the ears and leaving the roots in the ground. One says, “So-and-so cut off the ears of so-and-so’s crop (qaraṭa zarʿa fulān).” With u after the q, it is the name of a small ring of silver that is put in the ear of a young boy—a praiseworthy custom, especially if the boy is beautiful, for it adds to his good looks and clothes him in cuteness. Abū Nuwās¹⁸⁷ says in the opening line of one of his odes:

      An earringed¹⁸⁸ boy who hastens to the drinking companions

      With a carnelian in a white pearl

      —that is, this graceful beauty and charming form, adorned with and characterized by this silver earring, now hastens towards the drinking companions, with a wine in his hand whose color resembles that of a carnelian, in a cup resembling in purity of substance and refinement of form a white pearl, and gives them to drink from what is in his hand and passes the wine among them, beguiling them with his slender figure and charming talk . . .and so on to the end of the poem.

      ٧،٤،١١

11.4.7

      وقوله (على بيضي) أي بيض الناظم لا بيض المتكلّم ولا بيض غيره من الدجاج والطيور ونحو ذلك وسمّي بيضًا لشبهه بالبيض إذا انسلخ عنه الجلد وهو مشتقّ من البياض أو من أبو بيوض حيوان يشبه العنكبوت أو من بيضة القبّان

      ʿalā bayḍī (“around my balls”): that is, the poet’s balls, not those of the person actually reciting the verse, nor the “balls” of anything else such as a chicken, a bird, or the like.¹⁸⁹ Testicles are called “eggs” because they resemble them if you peel the skin off them. The word is derived from bayāḍ (“whiteness”) or from abū buyūḍ (“the one with the eggs”), an animal resembling a spider,¹⁹⁰ or from bayḍat al-qabbān (“the ‘egg’ of the steelyard”, i.e., the counterweight).

      ٨،٤،١١

11.4.8

      (مسألة هباليّة)