The Mu‘allaqa of ‘Abīd ibn al-Abras

appears in translation with an introduction by me

in

A public-access publication 

of the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), 

in cooperation with Al Qafilah magazine, 

produced by Saudi Aramco (Dhahran, 2020)

I would not have missed the chance to work with this team of editors and translators for the world. Many thanks to Hatem Alzahrani and Bander Alharbi. This is my first commissioned translation. My fee went to Climeworks.

Our poems are the best and travel far

I am told by Muhammad ibn Yahya [Abu Bakr al-Suli] that Muhammad ibn Sallam said: I was told by ‘Umar ibn Shabba that Muhammad, the son of Bashshar ibn Burd said:

Marwan ibn Abi Hafsa was reciting his poems before my father. He said, "If I could add some of your verses to mine I would be rich." At this, my father invited his rhapsode to recite them. So he recited a poem of Bashshar's rhymed in lām, and, when he got to the verses (meter: ṭawīl)—

    A depiction of you has been sent abroad by me.
      Off [my poem] went, and did not fail to arrive at inhabited areas.
    To the East and West I cast it, and the land swarmed
      with its reciters and travelers [who recited it elsewhere]

—Marwan said, "O Abu Mu‘adh! [That is, Bashshar.] Other poets are storks, but you are a falcon."

And Muhammad ibn Yahya said:

Bashshar's verse was imitated by Muhammad ibn Hazim al-Bahili (meter: wāfir):

    The meaning I intend forbids I make my poem long.
        My expert sense of [formal] correctness does the same.
    By making a short selection, and employing brevity,
        I shall curtail the length of my answer,
    and when I perform it for parties of travelers
        rhapsodes and riders will say it back to one another.

From The Ornament of the Learned Gathering
by Abu ʿAli Muhammad al-Hatimi