Leg over Leg. Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq

بڤرجيل (Virgilius) والطليانيّين بطاسّو (Tasso) والنمساويين بشِلَر (Schiller) والفرنسيس براسين وموليير (Racine et Molière) والانكليز بشكسبير وملطون وبيرون * (Shakspeare, Milton et Byron) فاما شعرآ العرب المبرّزون على جميع هولاء فاكثر من ان يُعدّوا * بل ربما كان ينبغ فى عهد واحد فى زمن الخلفآ مائتا شاعر كلهم بارع فائق * وذلك لان اللُّها^١ كما قيل تفتح اللها * على انه لا مناسبة بين الشعر العربى وشعرهم * لانهم لا يلتزمون فيه الروىّ والقافية وليس عندهم قصيدة واحدة على قافية واحدة ولا محسنات بديعية مع كثرة الضرورات التى يحشّون بها كلامهم * فنظمهم فى الحقيقة اقل كلفة من نثرنا المسجّع * وما احد من شعرآ الافرنج استحق ان يكون نديما لملكه * فغاية ما يصلون اليه من السعادة والحظوة عند ملوكهم انما هو ان يرخَّص لهم فى انشاد شعرهم فى بعض الملاهى * فاىّ هوانٍ يلحق جناب الملك المعظم من اتخاذه الشاعر نديما وكليما * ام يقال ان شعرآ الافرنج كثيرون بحيث لا يمكن للملك ان يختار واحدا منهم على غيره * ارونى اين هم هولآ الكثيرون على خزنته السعيدة * كم فى بلاد الانكليز الان من ناثر * وكم فى بلاد فرانسا من ناظم *

      ١ ١٨٥٥: اللهى.

      This fact—that generosity is a trait peculiar to the Arabs—explains why no truly glorious and distinguished poets equal to theirs have emerged in any other nation at any place or time, reckoning from the Days of Barbarism to the end of the caliphs and the Arab empire. The Greeks boast of a single poet, namely Homer (Ὅμηρος), the Romans of Virgil, the Italians of Tasso, the Austrians of Schiller,¹¹² the French of Racine and Molière, and the English of Shakespeare, Milton, and Byron, while the number of Arab poets who surpass all of these is too large to count. Indeed, over one period during the days of the caliphs there may have been more than two hundred poets, all of them brilliant and outstanding, the reason being that “purses,” as they say, “open throats.” Moreover, there is no comparison between the poetry of the Arabs and theirs: they do not observe the rules for rhyme-consonants and rhymes¹¹³ and do not have poems with a single rhyme or stylistically exquisite embellishments, despite the large number of metrical infractions with which their verse is stuffed. In fact, their poetry is less demanding than our rhymed prose, and not one of the poets of the Franks would have been good enough to be a boon companion to his king: the highest degree of good fortune and favor any of them may reach is to be licensed to recite some of their verses in certain theaters.¹¹⁴ And again, what shame would attach to the august person of the king from taking a poet as the companion of his potations and conversations? Or is one to suppose that the poets of the Franks are so numerous that the king couldn’t make up his mind which to choose? Tell me, what are they, compared to his auspicious treasury? How many prose writers are there now in England, how many poets in France?

      4.8.6

      وهنا ينبغى ايضا ان اضيف ملاحظة اخرى فاقول * انه قلما ينبغ شاعر عربى او عجمى ويعجب الناس جميعا * فان من الشعرآ من يحب الكلام الجزل الفخم دون ابتكار المعنى * وبعضهم يعنى بالمعانى دون الالفاظ * وبعضهم يتحرّى اللفظ الرقيق والعبارات المنسجمة * وبعضهم الغزل وغير ذلك * ولا تكاد تجتمع هذه المزايا كلها فى شاعر واحد او تجتمع عليها اخلاق الناس كلهم * فان من كان من بنى نَظَرى ذَبَّ الرِياد شَحِما لَحِما مُخْضعا متصندلا زِيْر النسآ وخِلْبهن وشِيْعهن ونِسْأَهن وحِدْثهن وطِلْحهن وطِلْبهن وخِدنهنّ وعَلّهن ورَنُوّهن وحُرْقوصهن(١)(١) الحرقوص بالضم دويبة كالبرغوث حمتها كحمة الزنبور او القراد تلصق بالناس او اصغر من الجُعَل تنقب الاساقى^١ وتدخل فى فروج الجوارى * فاقحا اياهن حيث سرن * وكارزا لهن ايان برزن * لا تهمه الحماسة ولا منازلة الاقران * فعنده ان قول امرء القيس

اذا ما بكى من خلفها انصرفت له

بشق وتحتى شقّها لم تحوّل

      احسن من قول عنترة

فطعنته بالرمح ثم علوته

بمهند صافى الحديدة مِخْذم

      ومن يكن عِرْوا او عَزِها او حصورا او عِتْوَلا مُقْطَعا او متاَبّدا او عَنْكَشا عِثْيَلا او صَيْقما صمكمكا كيكآ ليس به حمضة الى العَبْهرة العجنجرة * والعياذ بالله من ذلك * صرف ذهنه الى الزهديات والحكميات * انتهى

      ١ ١٨٥٥: الاسافى.

      And here I must draw attention to a further point: rarely does a poet, Arab or otherwise, come to prominence who pleases all. Some poets like eloquent and ringing words more than innovation in meaning while some concern themselves with meaning more than with words. Some search for the refined word and the harmonious expression, others for amatory or other effect. All these traits are unlikely to consort together in a single poet, just as not everybody’s predilections are likely to be in concert regarding them. Any connoisseur of women who is an oryx bull, rubbery and blubbery, a silver-tongued sweet-talker, a lady’s man, one who delights in their company, their fervent supporter, their friend and companion, their follower, their soul mate, their constant visitor, who dies to talk with them, a beaver-boring beetle,(1)(1) The ḥurqūṣ [“beaver-boring beetle”] is “a small creature like a flea with a stinger like that of a hornet, or a tick that clings to people, or something smaller than a beetle that bores through waterskins and enters the vaginas of young women.” bruising their bungholes wherever they go, sniffing around wherever they pee, will have no interest in derring-do and snicker-snee. He will believe that the words of Imruʾ al-Qays that go¹¹⁵

      Whenever he whimpered behind her, she turned to him

      With half her body, her other half unshifted under me

      are