I was with al-Farazdaq when he met Kuthayyir. He said, "O Abu Sakhr! [That is, Kuthayyir.] Of all the love poetry of the Arabs, yours is the best where you say" (meter: ṭawīl):
I wish I could forget her. But everywhere
I look, it's like Layla's there.
Kuthayyir responded, "O Abu Firas! [That is, al-Farazdaq.] Of all the Arabs' tribal boasting, yours is the best where you say" (meter: ṭawīl):
We walk before other people, and they behind us.
All we have to do is gesture, and they halt.
Talha said: Both verses are by Jamil. The first was ripped off by Kuthayyir, and the other by al-Farazdaq.
Then al-Farazdaq said to Kuthayyir, "O Abu Sakhr! Did your mother used to come to Basra?" "No," said Kuthayyir, "but my father sure did."
Talha said: Kuthayyir's comeback cracked me up. I never met anyone crazier than him. I was with a Qurashi group one time when we found him unwell. "How are you getting on?" we asked him. "Fine," he said. "Have you heard otherwise?" (Now Kuthayyir had Shi‘ite leanings.)
"Yes," we said. "They say you're the Antichrist."
Kuthayyir said, "By God, now that you mention it, I have been losing sight in one eye for the past few days!"
From the Commentary on the verses cited in the Summa of Ibn Hisham
by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti; cf. the Book of Songs (1, 2)
