A riddle and a mention

Last year, I tried to write a few paragraphs on ghazal poetry and its relation to the craft of spinning, called in Arabic ghazl. Before long, I had 9,500 words on my hands, and now I'm stoked for them to appear in Studia Metrica et Poetica, the open-access journal from University of Tartu Press. For a magnificent editorial experience, I am grateful to Maria-Kristiina Lotman, and to Kalle Paalits for the patient typesetting, and to my friends and colleagues thanked by name in footnote sixty to "The Riddle of the Thread: On Arabic ghazal."

        

Also last year, I entered my translation of "The Palm Tree Sings" (1981) by Tahar Hammami into competition for the Stephen Spender Trust's 2023 Poetry in Translation Prize, and received a Commendation for First-Time Entrants. Whatever I can do to draw attention to Hammami's work won't resolve my debt to his 2003 monograph al-Shi‘r ‘alā al-shi‘r (Poetry on Poetry: A Study of [Arabic] Poetics up to the 5th c. A.H./11th c. CE in View of Poets' Verses About It), without which the book I'm writing would be a vain dream. Profound thanks to the poet's brother Hamma Hammami (Secretary General of the Tunisian Workers' Party) for his permission to reprint the Arabic text, and to Youssef Ben Ismail and Amani Alzoubi for their critical assistance.

Another Language of the Birds

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate     

The angel Gabriel, peace be upon him, said: Hearken unto me, Muhammad, and to the knowledge sent you by my Lord and yours, Who gave the birds their languages and deserves our worship.

O Muhammad, when the Rooster of the Throne gives voice, every rooster on earth responds by crowing. And when the white rooster crows, "Remember God, O heedless ones!" is what it says—or, by another account: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is His prophet."
     When the frog croaks, "The Messiah is in the whorl of the cloud" is what it says.
     When the skylark calls, "God's curse be on the enemies of Muhammad and his family!" is what it says.
     When the francolin cries, "The Merciful is seated on His throne" is what it says.
     When the starling calls, "Dear God the Provider, give to me sustenance day by day" is what it says.
     When the hen cackles, "Death, murder, and plague!" are what it says, and after its throat is cut it stammers on until its blood is drained.
     When the wood pigeon calls, "To death your young are destined, to ruin what you build, and everything you gather is for others to inherit" is what it says.
     When the laughing dove cries, "If only humans were never created! If only they knew what they were created for!" is what it says.
     When the hoopoe calls, "Who shows no mercy in this world will be shown none in the next" is what it says—or, by another account: "Everything dies, and everything new gets old."
     When the shrike gives voice, "This world doesn't matter" is what it says.
     When the sandpiper calls, "Do good, and good will come to you" is what it says.
     When the swallow cries, "Everything alive will die, and everything new gets old" is what it says.
     When the dove calls, "Glory be to my Lord Most High, and praise to Him" is what it says. The white dove is a bringer of blessings, and was prayed for by Noah, peace be upon him. And when the grey dove calls, "Glory be to my Lord, the Benevolent!" is what it says.
     When the peacock cries, "There is safety in the silence of the taciturn" is what it says.
     When the kite screeches, "Everything perishes but the face of the Mighty and Everlasting" is what it says.
     When the parrot calls, "This is the world of perishable things; what lasts forever belongs to the next" is what it says—or, by another account: "Woe unto whom this world is a matter of concern!"
     When the vulture calls, "O child of Adam! Live and do as you please, and death will be the end of you" is what it says.
     When the eagle cries, "Remoteness from people is a form of sociability" is what it says.
     When the hawk shrieks, "For the intelligent, death suffices as a sermon" is what it says.
     When the black raven caws, "What happens after death.... (?)" is what it says.
     When the peregrine falcon calls, "I marvel at those who die happy" is what it says.
     When the roller cries, "Dear God, Who hears our plaints, enroll me in the champions of Your Chosen One!" is what it says.
     When the magpie calls, "All that drink water will taste death" is what it says.
     When the Jewish raven caws, "Hellfire! Hellfire! No one withstands Hell's fire" is what it says.
     When the owl hoots, "Death and destruction! Separate and disperse!" are what it says. When you hear it, say: "God suffices us, and is the best of overseers" until it stops.
     When the [blank in manuscript] calls, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" is what it says.
     When the duck quacks, "Glory be to our Lord! In You we seek refuge" is what it says.
     When the sparrow hawk cries, "The mercy shown me encompasses all things! Let the community of Muhammad enter the Garden, by Your mercy!" is what it says.
     When the partridge calls, "O King of Kings, liberate the community of Muhammad from Hellfire" is what it says.
     When the quail lifts its voice, "O peace! Save us, and we'll give safety to whoever comes in peace" is what it says.
     When the nightingale sings, "O Kindly, Caring and Majestic One!" is what it says.
     When the Barbary dove cries, "Glory be to Him Who brings dead bones to life!" is what it says.
     When the curlew calls, "This world is perishable! The world to come is everlasting" is what it says.
     When the jaeger cries, "O Living and Eternal God! 'No drowsiness overtakes him and no sleep'" is what it says.
     When the Anqa lifts its voice, "Glory be to the Creator of the seed of life inside of wombs!" is what it says.
     When the ostrich calls, "O child of Adam, do not forget the bleakness of the grave and the narrowness of the tomb!" is what it says.
     When the crane cries, "O sufficer! Spare me the evil of Adam's children" is what it says.
     When the philomel sings, "The time is near, all hope is lost, the task is perilous," is what it says.
     When the waterbird calls, "O Knower of all that is hidden and secret! You created me [in the Garden, where you spared me] from the ordeals of this world" (?) is what it says.
     And when the fly buzzes, "Who obeys God obeys Him in all things" is what it says.
     And when the hornet buzzes, "Give me power only over those who....(?)" is what it says.
     And when the bee buzzes, "O you who wield a cane, do not thrash with it, and be forgiving of the community of Muhammad, seal of the prophets" is what it says.
     And when the lion roars, "O You of hidden grace, Your grace is sufficient kindness" is what it says.
     And when the lizard is heard, "Trust in God is all you need" is what it says.
     And when the wolf howls, "O you of grievous violence! Your pity is as unseemly as your lack of it" is what it says.
     And when the gazelle calls, "O people! Be ever wakeful" is what it says.
     And when the elephant calls, "Glory be to You, Who are the Greatest" is what it says.
     And when the pig squeals, "O flock of retribution!" is what it says.
     And when the rabbit is heard, "O Giver of Security! O Absolute Authority!"is what it says.
     And when the cat meows, "O .... (?)" is what it says.
     And when the locust calls, "You reap what you sow" is what it says.
     And when the mare whinnies, "Glory to the Pure and Free of blemish, our Perfect Lord and Lord of angels!" is what it says.
     And when the cow moos, "O Keeper of the Garden! O Beneficent!" is what it says.
     And when the goat bleats, "O Merciful! O Compassionate!" is what it says.
     And when the mule groans, "God's curse be upon oppressors!" is what it says.
     And when the ass brays, "Cursed be collectors of the ‘ushr tax!" is what it says.
     And when the serpent hisses, "There is a predetermined time for everything that happens." is what it says.
     And when the scorpion hisses, "I am God's blessing upon the pious and impious alike" [is what it says].
     And when the fish cries, "Glory Be to the Living and Undying!" is what it says.
     And when the gnat whines, "O You, the Living when nothing else was! O you Whose knowledge none can equal when it comes to birds and eagles!"

This concludes the treatise of The Language of the Birds.     

Bibliotheca Alexandrina MS Baladiyya 4952د, fol. 56v, by Anonymous

Houses of the unjust

By what logic are descendants liable for their ancestors? Do they not inherit their estates, and the gold and silver so often accumulated from unjust sources? That's sufficient cause, indeed the main cause for their liability. Their tribulations are shared with their ancestors' shades, who suffer along with them.

It is right for descendants to pay ancestral penalties, for it is into just such families that people worthy of their sufferings are born. Methodically, justly, and transcendently are all things woven together by Providence, divine Nature, and the gods guided by Fate! For there is a certain unity to be observed within a family. Among the seeds and principles of growth [of any type of plant] there is a commonality, and it is analogous to the commonality of souls in families like these, and the ills and blessings they incur. If, when we went to bed, we were to forget our lives of the previous day, then the life of one person—which might go on for seventy or eighty years—would seem to us to contain many lives. In families like these, there is a similar kind of coherence that is beyond our view, though it is certainly evident to the gods whom Fate guides, and to the spirits assigned by Chance to each of these families. And just as doctors don't rush into surgery to treat the malady threatening an individual patient's life, but wait until that patient is ready to go through it, neither do the spirits that oversee one family—quite the way Herodotus narrates that the penalty of the Lydian [tyrant Gyges] was expiated by his descendants five generations later.

Accursed deeds of long ago: To remedy a recent sin is relatively easy, but those committed long ago are harder to wash away, and cannot be cleansed without theurgic action. This too may be observed in medical practice, where maladies of recent origin are easier to recover from when they've only just struck, as long as the patient attends proactively to their care. Left to fester over time, the evil sets into the system like an indurated scar, becoming as it were a second nature. It is the same is with unjust deeds. A remorseful wrongdoer, who makes amends straightaway to the wronged party, thereby dissolves the unjust deed and becomes free of liability for the penalty. And when someone undoes the wrong committed by their father—by giving back a field he seized, let's say—not only is that person's liability removed, but the soul of the one who seized it is uplifted and relieved. And theurgic action is also helpful in such a case.

But take the case of a man who keeps a field he seized from those who cleared it. If it the property stays in his family, and his descendants continue to use it, the injustice becomes less obvious and harder to redress, and over time the evil is naturalized, so to speak. That is why the gods often issue prophetic commands [for those who petition the oracle] to go to this or that place and apologize to a certain person previously unknown to them, and to make amends to that person in order to recover their health, and put an end to their sufferings and pursuit by Furies. The gods issue this kind of prophecy not to abrogate justice, but in order to effect just outcomes and rectify our ways of life.

Theurgy, then, wherever it arises, restores the mad to health, and through them it saves many others. [The way it works is] like what they say about the man who was cutting down an oak tree, and when a nymph begged him to stop, he spared not the oak but cut it down, and was thereafter subjected to the Furies' retribution and afflicted with want of sustenance. Anything that fell into his hands was taken away, until an initiate told him to set up an altar to the same nymph, and with that his disasters came to an end. Another man, a matricide, was told by the god to find a land other than land that exists, and go live there. When he put together that this signified an island newly risen from the stream, he went and made his home upon it, and his castigation by the Furies came to an end.

From the Commentary on Plato's Phaedrus (244de) by
Hermeias of Alexandria

In defense of shepherds

Some people disparage herdsmen and call them simpletons: "Dumber than a shepherd of eighty [sheep]" is one thing they say, and "Don't go to the shepherd for advice" is another. But the virtues of the shepherd are indicated in hadith. "Never was there a prophet that did not tend a flock, and so did I," the Prophet said, God's blessings and peace be upon him, and: "God never sent a prophet that was not a shepherd. Moses and Aaron were shepherds, and I was sent as shepherd to my people."

[Al-Jahiz says that Ibn Kunasa said:] The owner of a herd of camels contracted a cameleer, saying: "You must tar their mange, and line their trough with clay, and locate strays and turn back runaways. And you must see to their milking without depriving the calves and drinking it all yourself."
      The cameleer said: "Fine, as long as your hands are with mine in extremes of heat and cold, and I am given a seat by the fire, and you say nothing bad about my mother."
     "Okay," said the herd owner, "you can have all that. But if you cheat me, what's the penalty?"
     "Swing your rod," the cameleer said, "and you might hit me, and you might not."

And then there was the boasting-match between two herdsmen. "By God," the first one said, "ever since my youth, I've had no rod but this one, and it's never broken!"
     "Profligate!" said the other. "My hand is the only rod I've ever owned."

A poet [al-Ra‘i al-Numayri] said:

      [So thin] his veins jut, he is gentle with the rod.
          Even in lean times you see his flock well cared for.

From Lectures of the Learned by al-Raghib al-Isbahani

Two recensions

A man described as ‘abāmā’ is a doltish simpleton. Jamīl said (meter: ṭawīl):

           This dolt has never joined a fight, or knelt a camel
               for its saddle as it strains against a tether.
           Herds are what he's busy at, pasture
               his eternal quest. His thoughts are of his nanny goats
           sired by a dusky buck, with horns that poke up
               from their skulls like pods of carob.
           His gut is big, and though his mind's a muddle,
               his eye is ever on the smallest kid, and long his rod.

       

Al-Aṣma‘ī said: A man who is ṭabāqā’ is without insight into what concerns him, as in the verse by Jamīl:

           This dullard's never joined a fight, or knelt a camel
               for its saddle as it strains against a tether.

This is the Basran recension of the verse as al-Aṣma‘ī recited it, and Abū ‘Ubayd reported that he said: "‘Ayāyā’ has the same meaning as ṭabāqā’, and is said of the male camel that won't mount a female." In his Book of Uncommon Words, Abū ‘Ubayd says: "A ṭabāqā’ is an impotent dullard."

From The Curtailed and the Prolonged by Abū ‘Alī al-Qālī

Some myths are true

SOCRATES: The speech I will deliver is by Stesichorus son of Euphemus of Himera, and it has to go something like this:

It's false to say that, rather than someone who loves you madly and is good to go, you should take a disinterested lover who is sane and rational. That would be well said if all madness were bad. But it is through madness that our greatest blessings come to us, by which of course I mean the madness that is the gift of the gods. [Firstly,] in public as in private matters, the ravings of the oracle at Delphi have done Greece a lot of good, and so have the holy women who prophesy at Dodona, but little to no good when these same women were in their right minds. And if we were to speak of the Sibyl, and all others whose divinely-inspired pronunciations have corrected so many people's courses toward the future, then our discourse would obviously run on long.

But it is worth giving evidence for the beliefs of the ancient name-givers, according to whom madness was no cause for rebuke or shame. Otherwise, they would not have called our noblest prognostic arts by a name that implicates them in mania. But in their conviction that divinely-awarded madness is a blessing, they designated these arts as manic; it's only now that the "mantic arts" are spoken of with an inserted letter t, which is an insipid vulgarism. [By contrast,] when they assigned a name to those forms of research into the future performed by the non-mad, through studious contemplation of birds and other omens, they called them oionoïstikē, since these techniques endow mortal oiēsis (opinion) with nous (intellect) and historia (fruits of inquiry). Nowadays, by way of affecting a more sententious tone, people lengthen the second o and pronounce it as oiōnoïstikē. The upshot of all that is this: To the same degree that mantic arts are more perfect and honorable than augury—in name as they are in deed—the superiority of divine madness to mortal reason is attested by the ancients.

It also happens, in the event of ailments and grievous harms stemming from accursed deeds of long ago [e.g.], that madness intervenes to communicate a divinely-inspired message to those in need, and through resort to prayer and ministration to the gods it ferrets out their means of deliverance, hitting thus upon purifications and sacred rituals and bringing wellness once and for all to the sufferer touched with madness. Madness finds release for people in the grip of present evils, provided that they rave in the right way.

Thirdly, there is possession by the Muses. This madness takes hold of pure and tender souls and stirs them to song and other verse forms in a Bacchic frenzy. Thus arranged by the Muses' madness, countless feats of the heroic past are made teachable to hearers of the latter day. Anyone who shows up at the gates of poetry without it, presuming to become a worthy poet through craft alone, is destined for oblivion when the poetry of the stark and raving blows away that of the merely sane.

Plato, Phaedrus 244a-245a

Nights come in threes

I was informed by Tha‘lab on the authority of Salama that al-Farrā’ said:

The first three nights [of the lunar month] are called al-Ghurar or al-Ghurr "The Blazes." The moon rises in the forepart (ghurra) of the night, and is likened to the blaze (ghurra) on a horse's forehead because it is brighter in one area than the rest. By some these nights are called al-‘Urj "The Limpers." The first of them is called al-Naḥīra "The Affrontant" [because it "faces" the last night of the month before it]. The last night of the month, when the crescent moon disappears from view, is another Naḥīra.

The next three nights are called al-Nufal "The Superogatory," because they give more light than the first three. A gift that is not incumbent on the giver is an act of tanfīl, and superogatory prayer is called nāfila, because it is not obligatory. By some, these nights are called al-Shuhb "The Greys," because the whiteness of the moon mixes with the black of night. Horses with grey coats are called the same.

[Three nights omitted here are called by some al-Zuhar "The Brights," or defensibly "The Cythereans" after the planet Venus which is al-Zuhara.] There follow three Buhar "The Outshiners," so called because their moon outshines the darkness of the night.

Night thirteen is the night of al-Siwā’ "The [Full Moon's] Equivalent," also called al-‘Afrā’ "The Dusty." Night fourteen is the night of al-Badr "The Full Moon," so called for its uncanny resemblance (mubādara) to the sun. These are al-Bīḍ "The White Nights."

Then come three Dura‘ [an epithet of sheep that are] "Black with a White Head" or "White With a Black Head," because the last of them gets dark. Then there are three Bīḍ. There follow three Ẓulam "The Darks," then three Ḥanādis "The Pitch Blacks," and then the three Da’ādi’  "Hasteners [of the Occultation of the Moon]," singular Daydā’a or Da’dā’a. On al-Muḥāq "The Total Wipeout," the moon's occultation is total, and that is the last night of the month.

From The Book of Day and Night in [the Arabic] Language
by Ghulām Tha‘lab (Ibid.) (cf.)