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

ووالله لقد رأيت علماء، منهم ابن خالَوَيه إذا قُرِئَت عليهم الكتب، ولا سيما الكبار، رجعوا إلى أصولهم كالمقابلين يتحفظون من سهو وتصحيف وغلط.

      والعجب العجيب والنادر الغريب، حِفْظُه – أدام الله تأييده – لأسماء الرجال والمنثور، كحفْظ غيره من الأذكياء المبرّزين المنظوم، وهذا سهل بالقول صعب بالفعل، من سمعه طمع فيه، ومن رامه امتَنَعَت عليه معانيه ومبانيه.

      ١ في النسخ: (تقريظي).

      I ask the venerable Sheikh to excuse me when I laud him, even though I fall short of doing him justice, because his excellence has spread among all people and he has become a bright light on the brow of the sun and the moon. This has been immortalized in wonderful reports and has been written night-black on day-white. In writing to his noble person in verse and in prose I am like someone who fuels a fire with a spark, who presents the moon with a gift of light, who pours a mouthful into the sea, or who lends speed to that of the celestial sphere; for no shortcoming settles in his valley and no inadvertence nears his assembly.

      I have heard the Sheikhs’s epistles being read, which contain expressions so exquisite that if I extolled them I would have disgraced them, and which if I described them I would not have done justice to them. I was enraptured by them—God is my witness—as if enraptured by music. By God, if they were produced by someone who had his library and his books around him, turning his eyes now to this, and then to that—for “the pen is the tongue of the hand and one of the two kinds of eloquence”—it would be an amazingly difficult feat. By God, I have seen scholars such as Ibn Khālawayh who, when books were studied under their supervision, especially large ones, would consult their exemplars, like those who collate copies of texts in order to guard themselves against slips, misspellings, or errors.

      But what is a truly amazing and an extraordinary and rare thing, is the Sheikh’s memory—may God always support him!—of people’s names and prose texts, just as other intelligent and eminent people memorize poetry. It is easy to say but hard to do; he who hears of it aspires to it, but if he aims for it, he finds it impossible to achieve it in meaning and form.136

      On Memorizing and Forgetting; Ibn al-Qāriḥ Complains Again

      9.1

      حدّثني أبو علي الصِقلّيّ بدمشق قال: كنت في مجلس ابن خالَويه إذ وردت عليه من سيف الدولة مسائل تتعلّق باللغة، فاضطرب لها ودخل خِزَانته وأخرج كتب اللغة، وفرّقها على أصحابه يُفتّشونها ليجيب عنها. وتركتُه وذهبت إلى أبي الطيِّب اللُغَوي وهو جالس وقد وردت عليه تلك المسائل بعينها وبيده قلم الحُمْرة، فأجاب به ولم يُغَيِّره، قُدرةً على الجواب. وقال أبو الطيِّب: قرأت على أبي عُمَرَ الفصيح وإصلاح المنطق حفظًا. وقال لي أبو عمر: كنت أُعلّق اللغة عن ثعلب على خَزَف، وأجلس على دِجلةَ أحفظها وأرمي بها.

      Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣiqillī137 told me in Damascus: “I was sitting in Ibn Khālawayh’s assembly when he received some queries from Sayf al-Dawlah concerning lexicography. He became agitated about this, went into his library and got out dictionaries, distributing them among his companions, so that they could consult them and he could find the answer. I left him and went to Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Lughawī, who was holding a session and who had received the very same queries. He was holding a reed pen with red ink, with which he was writing the answers, without making any changes, such was his skill in replying. ‘I recited from memory The Pure Language and The Correction of Speech138 with Abū ʿUmar,’ said Abū l-Ṭayyib, ‘and Abū ʿUmar told me, “I would take notes in lectures on lexicography from Thaʿlab, writing the notes on pieces of pottery; I would sit on the bank of the Tigris memorizing them and then throwing them away.”’”

      9.2

      وأنا تعبت وحفظت نصف عمري، ونسيت نصفه. وذاك أني درست ببغداد وخرجت عنها وأنا طَرِيُّ الحفظ، ومضيت إلى مصر فأمرجتُ نفسي في الأغراض البهيمية، والأعراض الموثمية، وأردت بزَعْمي وخديعة الطبع المُلِيم أن أذيقها حلاوة العيش، كما صبرتُ في طلب العِلم والأدب، ونسيت أن العلم غذاء النفس الشريفة وصيقل الأفهام اللطيفة. وكنت أكتب خمسين ورقة في اليوم، وأدرس مائتين، فصرت الآن أكتب ورقة واحدة وتحُكّني عيناي حَكًّا مؤْلمًا، وأدرس خمس أوراق وتكلّ.

      ثم دُفعتُ إلى أوقات ليس فيها من يرغب في علم ولا أدب، بل في فضّة وذهب، فلو كنت إياسًا صرت باقلًا. وأضع كتابًا عن يميني وأطلبه عن شمالي، وأريد مع ضعفي أرتاد لنفسي معاشًا بظهرٍ غير ظهير، بل كسير عقير، وصُلبٍ غير صليب، إن جلستُ فهو كالدُمّل، وإن مشيت فجُملتي دماميل. ومعي بقيّة نزرة يسيرة من جملة كثيرة، لو وجدت ثقة أعطيته إياها ليعود عليّ بما أُرفّه به عن جسمي من الحركة، وقلبي من الشغل. وأنا أجد من أدفعها إليه وبقي أن يرُدّها إليّ!

      I have exhausted myself spending the first half of my life memorizing things, and the second half forgetting them. I studied in Baghdad and left it when my memory was still fresh. I went to Egypt, letting myself indulge in animal desires and sinful designs. I wanted, in my eagerness, deceived by my blameworthy nature, to taste the sweetness of a life of pleasure, just as I persevered in seeking knowledge and erudition. I forgot that knowledge is the food of a noble soul and the burnisher of subtle minds. I used to write fifty folios each day and study two hundred; but now I write but one single folio and my eyes smart in pain and when I study five folios my eyes grow weary.

      Then I was compelled to survive long enough to witness times in which no one desires knowledge or erudition; rather they want silver and gold! Though I may have been Iyās, I have become Bāqil.139 I put a book down on my right and then look for it on my left. In spite of my weakness I try to make a living with a back that does not back me up but is broken and wounded, with a spinal column no longer firm. If I sit down it is like having a boil; if I walk I am all boils! All I have left is a trifle, a scant remainder of what was once a huge amount. If I could find a reliable person I would give it to him in return for something with which I could ease my body