The Epistle of Forgiveness. Abu l-'Ala al-Ma'arri

tribe.

      Enjoy the presence of your friend, for I don’t think

      you’ll see him or he’ll see you after today.

      3.10.2

      وأَلَحَّ به البوْل فقلتُ له: البول مُلِحٌّ بك. فقال:

غدًا ينقطعُ البولُ	ويأتي الويل والعَوْلُ
ألا إن لقَاءَ اللّـ	ـهِ هولٌ دونَه الهولُ

      ومات من الغد.

      فأرجو أن يكون هذا القول توبةً له مما كان اعتقده من ذَبحِه نفسه، والرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام يقول: من وَجَأَ نفسه بحديدة حُشِرَ يوم القيامة وحديدته بيده يجأ بها نفسه خالدًا مخلّدًا في النار، من تردّى من شاهق حُشر يوم القيامة يتردَّى على مِنْخريْه في النار خالدًا مخلّدًا، من تحسّى سُمًّا حُشر يوم القيامة وسمُّه بيده يتحسّاه خالدًا مخلّدًا في النار.

      “He found it difficult to stop urinating, so I said to him, ‘You find it difficult to stop urinating!’ He recited:

      Tomorrow there will be an end to urinating

      and there will be wailing and howling!

      Indeed, meeting with God

      is terror upon terror.

      “He died the following day.”

      I hope that these words were an act of atonement for his idea of committing suicide. God’s messenger (on whom be blessing and well-being) said, “He who stabs himself with a knife will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection with his knife in his hand, and he will stab himself with it forever and ever in Hell. He who throws himself from a height will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection and be thrown on to his nostrils in Hell forever and ever. He who drinks poison will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection with his poison in his hand, drinking it forever and ever in Hell.”

      3.11

      قال الحسن بن رَجاء الكاتب: جاءني أبو تمّام إلى خراسان فبلغنى أنه لا يصلّي، فوكلتُ به من لازَمَه أيامًا فلم يره صلّى يومًا واحدًا، فعاتبته فقال: يا مولاي، قطعتُ إلى حضرتك من بغداد، فاحتملت المَشَّقَة وبُعْدَ الشُّقّة ولم أره يَثقُل عليّ، فلو كنت أعلم أن الصلاة تنفعني وتركُها يَضُرّني ما تركتُها. فأردتُ قتله فخشيت أن يُحمَل على غير هذا.

      Al-Ḥasan ibn Rajāʾ, the state secretary,74 said, “Abū Tammām came to me in Khorasan. I had heard that he did not perform the ritual prayer, so I appointed someone to stay close to him for some days, and he did not see him perform the ritual prayer one single day. I reproved him, but he said, ‘My lord, I have come all the way from Baghdad to visit your eminence, I have borne hardship and suffered a long journey, which I did not find burdensome. If I had known that ritual prayer would benefit me, and omitting it would harm me, I would not have omitted it!’ I intended to have him executed but I was afraid that this would be ascribed to the wrong motive.”

      3.12

      وفي تآريخ كثيرةٍ أنه أُحضر المازيار إلى المعتصم وقبل قدومه بيومٍ سخط على الأفشين لأن القاضي ابن أبي دُواد قال للمعتصم: أَغْرَلُ ويطأ امرأةً عربية! وهو كاتب المازيار، وزيّن له العصيان.

      فأحضر كاتبه، وتهدده المعتصم فأقرّ أنه كتب إلى المازيار: لم يكن في الأرض ولا في العصر بَليَّةٌ إلا أنا وأنت وبابَك، وقد كنت حريصًا على حقن دمه حتى كان من أمره ما كان، ولم يبق غيري وغيرك، وقد توجَّه إليك عسكرٌ من عساكر القوم، فإن هزمته وثَبْتُ أنا بمَلِكِهم في قرار داره، فظهر الدينُ الأبيض. فأجابه المازيار بجوابٍ هو عنده في سَفَط أحمر. فجمع بين الأفشين والمازيار، فاعترف المازيار بما حُكي عنه. وقيل للمعتصم: إن وراء المازيار مالًا جليلًا، فأنشد:

إن الأُسودَ أُسودَ الغابِ هِمَّتُها

يوم الكريهة في المسلوب لا السَلَبِ

      وذكروا أن اثنين قتلوا^١ ثلاثة آلاف ألف وخمسمائة ذبّاحٍ بالثياب الحُمْر والخناجر الطوال، وأنهم وجدوا أسماءهم في وقعةٍ وقعةٍ وفي بلد وبلد، وكانوا يأخذون من كل واحد علامةً: خاتمَه أو ثوبَه أو منديلَه أو تِكَّتَه: أتى الوادي فطَمَّ على القَرِيّ.

      ١ كذا في ب؛ وفي ق، إف: (قتلا) ؛ وفي العبارة عموض ولحن.

      It is mentioned in many historical works that al-Māzyār was brought into the presence of al-Muʿtaṣim one day after the latter had become enraged with al-Afshīn, when the judge Ibn Abī Duʾād had said to al-Muʿtaṣim, “An uncircumcised fellow, and he sleeps with an Arab woman! Also, he has corresponded with al-Māzyār and encouraged him to rebel!”

      Al-Afshīn’s secretary was summoned; when al-Muʿtaṣim threatened him he confessed to having written on behalf of al-Afshīn to al-Māzyār as follows: “In this world and at this time there is no scourge other than I, you, and Bābak. I was keen not to have Bābak’s blood shed, but his fate was otherwise. Now there is no one left but you and me. One of the armies of the Abbasids is heading for you. If you defeat it I shall attack their king, in his ‘fixed abode,’75 and the ‘white religion’76 will prevail.” Al-Māzyār had written a reply, which he had with him in a red basket. The caliph confronted al-Afshīn with al-Māzyār and the latter confessed to what had been reported of him. Someone said to al-Muʿtaṣim, “Al-Māzyār has lots of money!” But the caliph recited,

      The lions, the lions of the thicket, are intent,

      on an evil battle day, on the despoiled, not on the spoils.77

      It is said78 that two men killed three million and five hundred dhabbāḥ(?) in red clothes and with long daggers, and that they found their names in every individual encounter in every individual location; from each they took a token: his signet ring, his cloak, his kerchief, or his waistband. “The torrent reached the wadi and flooded the riverbed.”79

      3.13

      قد