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

would be a matter of “what is in proximity to a thing lends it its own stamp.” Or perhaps it should be taken in the sense that people use when they say “my heart’s hairs turned white,” in which case it would be a metaphorical whitening of the hair, and there would be no grounds for objection. Thus the problem is now revealed, such silliness no more concealed.

      11.5.12

      The word ʿāriḍ is derived from the ʿarḍī (“headcloth, turban”)²³³ that one wraps around the head or from the ʿarīḍah (“crossbar”) of a door, or from the ʿarūḍ (“prosody, verse-making”) that afflicts a person as a result of being touched by the jinn,²³⁴ or from the ʿāriḍ (“bank of clouds”) that brings rain, or from the ʿāriḍ (“flank”) of a mountain. As the poet says:

      Halt in the Qarāfah²³⁵ ’neath the flanks of al-ʿĀriḍ

      And say, “Peace be upon you, O Ibn al-Fāriḍ!”

      Or it may be so called because of its being spread sideways (taʿarruḍ) on the face. The paradigm is ʿaraḍa, yaʿriḍu, ʿarḍan, active participle ʿāriḍ (“to happen, to present, to expose”).

      11.5.13

      wa-ṣāra (“and (my heart) is”): of the measure of fāra (“it boiled over”), from ṣayrurah (verbal noun of ṣāra), or from the ṣārī (“mast”) of a boat, or from the ṣurr (“purse”) that is transferred every year to the Two Sanctuaries.²³⁶

      11.5.14

      li-qalbī (“(to) my heart”): meaning the poet’s heart and not anyone else’s, as will be obvious to anyone with a fatuous mind.

      11.5.15

      lawʿatun (“pangs”): these are an intense burning and yearning of the heart from the agony of passionate love, or fear, or separation from the beloved and so on. As I said in the same vein:

      Woe is me and alack for my pangs! Enough

      That I endure deep wrenching sighs in my sorrows!

      11.5.16

      wa-rajīf (“and trembling”): of the pattern of raghīf (“loaf”); that is, a trembling, the pain of which cannot be stilled and the motion of which cannot be quieted, resulting from the terror that has afflicted me from the descending of the Inspectors and my fear of them, as previously described.

      The paradigm is rajafa, yarjufu, rajfan (“to tremble”), like gharafa, yaghrufu, gharfan (“to ladle”).

      11.5.17

      Next, the poet begins to talk of another disaster with which he and his fellow peasants are afflicted and which is the most severe of the grave matters that affect them. He says:

      TEXT

      11.6

       wa-yawmin yajī l-dīwānu tabṭul mafāṣilī

       wa-hurru ʿalā rūḥī mina l-takhwīf

And on the day when the tax collectors come, my joints give way

      and I void my loose bowels over myself from the terror they’re creating

      COMMENTARY

      11.6.1

      wa-yawmin (“and on the day when”): with nunation²³⁷

      11.6.2

      yajī (“comes”): the time for the collection of the taxes by

      11.6.3

      al-dīwānu (“the tax collectors”): This is one of those things of which they say, «And ask the village!»²³⁸ that is, the people of the village. What happens is that, when the Christian arrives at the village or hamlet and divides up the tax into individual portions among the peasants according to the determinations made by the surveyors and the laws that are customarily followed and starts collecting them, fear, beatings, and the imprisonment of those who are unable to pay their taxes mount. A peasant may borrow money at excessive interest or take money against his crop before its ripening at a lower price than it will fetch when it is ripe, or sell his animal that provides milk for his children, or take his wife’s jewelry—by force if need be—to pawn or sell, and pay the proceeds to the Christian or whoever is charged with collecting the tax. If he cannot come up with anything and cannot find anyone to give it to him, and the tax farmer or the bailiff fears that his impoverishment may lead to his land going to ruin and being lost to the village tax rolls, the latter will take the peasant’s son and keep him as a pledge until he pays his taxes, or, if he has no son, his brother, or any of his relatives, or he may be put in prison to be beaten and punished so that the ordinances of the Almighty may be implemented against him. Some save themselves and flee under cover of night and never return to their homes, leaving their family and birthplace because of the oppressiveness of the taxation and the difficulty of their lives. As a poet said:

      Life’s bane is separation

      From loved ones and from birthplace.

      11.6.4

      There is no escape, in any case, from paying the tax, even if that results in affliction and woe, for, as the well-known and widespread proverb says, “The sultan’s taxes are extracted from between the nail and the quick,” and the peasant remains in severe distress so long as he has any tax to pay, and the day he pays it off is, in his eyes, a feast day.

      11.6.5

      To sum up, peasants are of two sorts, one blameless and noble, one feckless and false. The first is intelligent and prudent, skilled at choosing to whom to entrust his affairs and at exercising leadership. Sober minded, he is as regular in his prayers and other religious duties as he is in attending to his crops and fields. He has no time for lounging by the wall and is eager to defend the interests of his family, while avoiding all that is base and mean. He supervises the planting himself and is present in person at the harvesting and picking. He resorts to neither surveyor nor sharecropper, and has recourse to neither cowman nor hired laborer. On the contrary, he directs all his affairs himself and knows the problems and underlying causes involved in each case. He pays regular visits to the bailiff and his Master and does not busy himself with destruction or corruption. If he takes money from a moneylender, he doesn’t spend it on something perverse but rather on the well-being of his crops and animals and on servicing his obligations. He makes it his purpose to pay back his creditors and has compassion for the poor and the humble. He looks out for the well-being of his oxen, and respects his neighbor’s field. He makes it his purpose to pay his taxes, and puts his trust in the High, the Exalted. He shuns the twirling of mustaches and sitting about on stoops, is blessed by the Divine Reckoner, and pays his taxes to the sultan. If the moneylender comes to him he pays him his due in full, and if he asks for a second loan, the moneylender gives it to him. His children live in comfort, and his Master is pleased with him. He lives in ease and piety, and the Lord of the Worlds is pleased with him.

      11.6.6

      As for the second sort, he is brainless and of service to none, naked and destitute. He neither prays nor observes any religious practices, nor is he obedient to the Lord of the Worlds. He lacks taste and understanding, is ever on the lookout for what’s evil and disgusting, plays manqalah by day, and by night takes out his crowbar.²³⁹ He spends little time in the fields, preferring to loaf by the wall. He is a mustache-twirler, a low earner, a scrounger, a ranter, a …,²⁴⁰ and a braggart. Should any money come his way, he distributes it to blackguards and clods. He spends no time with bailiff or Master, but is sunk in perversity and corruption. His oxen starve, his horses waste away. He spends all his money on hubbub and hullabaloo, and his crops aren’t worth a fart. He spends without logic and is broke, penniless, indebted, detested by his Master, sunk in his error and corruption. Though his Master were to whip him and break his bones, he would not leave off gallivanting in the houses and alleys. If his Master exhorts him to do what’s right,