Leg over Leg. Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq

منها * فاما رغبة بعض الناس فى الغفول والبلاهة فانها مبنية على ان المحب لا يزال يقترح من محبوبته اشيآ كثيرة تبعث اليها الحاجة * فمتى كانت ذات دهآ وذكآء خشى ان تملّه وتحرمه *

      It is also the case that lovers follow different schools in love. Some love a woman who is all artifice, affectation, and vanity, while others do not find these things pleasing, preferring natural beauty and that their beloved should have a degree of naïveté and simplemindedness. This is what al-Mutanabbī was alluding to when he said:

      In the city, beauty’s an import, freshened up for the market.

      In the desert there’s a beauty that needs no importing.

      An example of the first kind is the man who is offered a certain dish when he has no appetite, so it has to be spiced up and faked. An example of the second is the man who suffers from diochism²⁴ or metafaucalophagy,(1)(1) the sīfannah is “a bird in Egypt that eats all the leaves of any tree it alights on”; one who is sarṭam is “wide in the throat and swallows quickly.” so that the absence of spicing and herbs cannot stop him from guzzling, tidbitting, and lapping until he’s licked the bottom of the bowl clean after first polishing off its contents. As far as the desire of certain people for naïveté and simplemindedness is concerned, it is based on the fact that the lover is always demanding things that he needs from his beloved and if the latter is possessed of cunning and intelligence, he will fear she may find this irksome and refuse him.

      3.2.22

      ومنهم من يزيد فى المراة غراما اذا كانت ذات عزّة وشرّة ومعاسرة * فيكون استرضاوها ادعى الى النشاط والسعى * وهذا يفعله فى الغالب من يتفرغ للهوى ويتصدى له من كل جهة * ومنهم من يعشق المراة لاتسامها بسمة شرف وسيادة او وجاهة * وذلك داب ذوى الطموح والاستطاعة * ومن هذا الصنف من اذا راى امراة وضيعة الشان تشبه امراة شريفة عشقها لاجل حصول المشابهة فقط * ويقال لاهل هذا المذهب المشبّهيّة * وهو فى النسآ اكثر فان المراة لا تكاد ترى رجلا الا وتقول لعله يشبه بعض الامرآ الغابرين او الحاضرين او الآتين * ومنهم من يعشق من بها ذلّة وانكسار وملاينة * وذلك شان ذوى الرفق والرقة * ومنهم من يعشق من على طلعتها اثار الحزن والكآبة والفكرة * وهو مذهب ذوى الحنين والطرب * ومنهم من يعشق ذات البشر والطلاقة والانس * وهو خلق المحزونين المبتئسين * فان النظر الى مثل هذه ينفى الهم * ويجلو الكرب والغم * ومنهم من يعشق من بها مرح ونزق وطيش وثرثرة وقهقهة * وهو داب السفهآ والجهلا * ومنهم من يعشق المراة لادبها وفهمها وحسن كلامها ومحاضرتها وسرعة جوابها * وهو مذهب العلمآ والادبا * ومنهم من يعشق من تكون كثيرة الحلىّ والتانّق فى الملبوس كثيرة الغنج والتمويه * وهو طريقة ذوى السرف والشطط * ومنهم من يعشق الماجنة المتهتكة المستهترة * وهو شان الفساق الفجار * ومنهم من يعشق الخيتعور الشهوانية المتلعجة الطفسة * وهو خلق من بلغ منه العُهر كل مبلغ * ومنهم من يعشق اللاّعة الخريدة العفيفة ابتغآ ان يفسدها ثم يتباهى بذلك بين اقرانه * فاذا رضيت له ملّها او ارادها ان تكون على غير تلك الحال * وهو عندى شرّ من عاشق المتوهجة * ومنهم من يحب اجتماع هذه الصفات المختلفة كلها فى محبوبته بحسب اختلاف الاحوال * هذا فى الخُلق فاما فى الخَلق فالنحيف يهوى السمينة وبالعكس * والاسمر يحب البيضآ وبالعكس * والطويل يحب القصيرة وبالعكس * والاملط يحب الكثيرة الشعر وبالعكس * اما النسآ فاحبّ الرجال اليهن الفارس الابتع * الشجاع الاروع *

      Another kind of lover is the one who loves a woman more if she is proud, a spitfire, difficult to handle, so that conciliating her calls for energy and effort. Most of those who undertake such a task have no other occupation than love and divert themselves with it wherever they find it. Another is the man who loves a woman who possesses the traits of nobility, self-command, and dignity; this is the way of men of ambition and capacity. Any man who sees a woman of humble station who resembles one nobly born and falls in love with her simply because of the resemblance belongs to this category, and the members of this school are called “comparators.” It is more common among women, for a woman can scarcely see a man without saying, “he looks like one of the emirs of the olden days,” or today’s days, or the coming days. Another is the man who falls in love with the woman who is abject, meek, and affectionate; this is the way of those who are kind and sensitive. Another is the man who falls in love with the woman whose countenance bears signs of grief, depression, and worry; this is the way of the tenderhearted and those easily moved by music. Another is the man who falls in love with the woman who is full of joy, unrestrained, and fun-loving; this is the disposition of those who are sad and wretched, for to look at a woman of that type dispels care and brings light where once reigned distress and despair. Another is the man who falls in love with the woman who is full of mirth and frivolity, flightiness, chatter, and hilarity; this is the way of fools and the ignorant. Another is the man who falls in love with a woman for her culture, understanding, eloquence, readiness of tongue, and quickness of wit; this is the course of scholars and litterateurs. Another is the man who falls in love with women who have lots of trinkets and dress elegantly, who are full of coquetry and affectation; this is the road of those given to extravagance and excess. Another is the man who falls in love with the wanton, shameless, brazen woman; this is the case with depraved lechers. Another is the man who falls in love with the inconstant, sensual, nymphomaniacal, unclean woman; this is the disposition of the man to whom whoring has done its worst. Another is the man who falls in love with the chaste virgin who refuses to let any man have his way with her, in the hope of corrupting her and then boasting of it among his peers; if, subsequently, she gives in to him, he grows tired of her or wishes she hadn’t. Such men, in my opinion, are more evil than those who make love to nymphomaniacs. And another is the man who loves the coming together of all these different traits in his beloved, as appropriate. So much for the moral dimension. As for the physical, the thin man falls for the fat woman and vice versa, the brown-skinned loves the white and vice versa, the tall loves the short and vice versa, and the smooth-skinned loves the hirsute and vice versa. As far as women are concerned, the man