“When I had a secret entrusted to me, I concealed it like the eggs of the hawk whose nest is not to be reached.”
In Arabic, lâ yunâlu la-hu wakru, where the pronoun in la-hu
(whose) refers to the collective noun baiẓ, not to the name of the
bird, since the secret concealed in the breast is compared to the
eggs deposited in the nest. Both these instances tally with the
proverb (Ar. Prov., ii. 148), a‘azzu min baiẓi ’l-anûqi, rarer than the
eggs of the hawk, for ‘azîz, of which a‘azz is the comparative, does
not imply absolute impossibility, but difficulty of attainment and
rareness of occurrence, being, for instance, applied to exceptional or
unique grammatical forms, as the plural sarât mentioned p. 224
above. On the other hand, it is stated that Mu‘âwiyeh was asked
by a man: “Wilt thou grant me a loan?” He answered “Yes.”
Said the man: “And to my son?” “No,” answered the Khalif.
“Or to my kindred?” insisted the supplicant. Whereupon Mu‘â-
“He wanted the piebald, big with young (t̤alaba ’l-ablaqa ’l-‘aqûq),
When he could not find him, he wished for the eggs of the hawk,”
where ablaq means a male piebald horse or spotted camel, for whom it is as impossible to conceive as it is for the male hawk to lay eggs, and consequently the latter phrase here coincides with the popular expression, “the egg of the cock.” Some, however, will have it that the cock lays an egg once without repeating the performance, in support whereof they quote the following verse of the poet Abû ‘Atâhîyah:
“Thou hast visited us once in a lifetime, do so again and let it not be the cock’s egg,”
i.e., let not thy visit remain solitary like it.
As with a frown the lion would fend his mane.—This alludes to the proverb: “More unapproachable than the mane of the lion” (see Ar. Prov., ii. 714). In the text the dual libdatai-hi is used, the reason for which seems to be that the word libdah (mane) is defined in the dictionaries as the matted hair between the shoulders and on the croup of the lion.
As those endowed with firmness bore patiently, in Arabic ṣabra ûlî ’l-‘azmi, a Koranic expression taken from ch. xlvi., v. 34: “Bear thou up, then, with patience, as did the Apostles, endued with firmness.”
Spill not the water of thy face, in Arabic lâ turîq mâ’a ’l-muhaiyâ, for the more usual mâ’a ’l-wajhi, in which the word “water” is used in a similar sense as when we speak of the water of a gem or a blade, meaning the smooth surface and serene aspect of the human countenance, characterising a man who is respected and respects himself. Thus “the water of the face,” like the Persian equivalent, âbi rûy, stands for honour, and to spill it is a metaphorical expression for “demeaning one’s self.”
And if his broidered satin (dîbâj) has gone to rags, sees not his way by begging to fret his cheeks.—Dîbâj, derived through Persian probably from the Greek, is brocade or embroidered silk-stuff, and the feminine form dîbâjah becomes a simile for the forehead and the cheeks, where again the idea of glossiness and smoothness constitutes the link of comparison. The fraying or fretting of the tissue of the face, by rubbing it on the ground in supplication, is an idiom of the same meaning as that explained in the preceding note, with both of which compare Chenery in the passage, Fray the tissue of my countenance , vol. i., p. 280. In addition to the extracts in prose and verse on the shame and humiliation of beggary given there, the following may be quoted. Al-Ḥasan, son of ‘Alî, said on this subject: “Let it suffice thee, as to begging, that it enfeebles the tongue of the speaker, and breaks the heart of the brave, the valiant, that it makes stand the freeborn, the noble, in the place of the abject slave, that it takes away the freshness of colour and wipes away a man’s honour, that it makes him love death and renders life hateful.” Al-Asma‘î relates: “I heard an Arab saying: ‘Begging is the highroad to abasement; it robs the noble of his greatness and the estimable of the esteem in which he is held.” Mu‘âwiyeh is said to have presented Abd Allah ibn az Zobayr with 3,000 dirhems for having recited to him a triplet of Afwah al-Awadî running thus:
“I have tested mankind generation after generation, and seen naught but deceit and strife,
Nor have I witnessed of calamities one more disastrous and hurtful than enmity between man and man,
And I have tasted the bitterness of all things, but there is naught that excels begging in bitterness.”
Wilt thou teach thy mother how to copulate, and thy nurse how to give suck?—Alluding to and enlarging upon the proverb “like one who instructs her mother in copulation” (Ar. Prov., ii. 325), said of a person who affects to teach another more knowing than himself. In similar manner the popular sayings: “The scorpion has rubbed himself against the snake, and the weanlings have coursed along with the stallions,” apply to one who attempts a task to which he is not equal (comp. Ar. Prov., i. 609).
And lowered to him the wing of the kindly, an expression borrowed from Koran, xvii. 25: “And lower to them (your parents) the wing of humility out of compassionate tenderness and say, ‘Lord have mercy on them both, even as they reared me when I was little.’”
As for those in need, an exception is made for them in matters prohibited.
—This refers to the popular saying aẓ-ẓarûrâtu tabîḥu ’l-
Was it not thou who contradicted his father irreverently in saying?— This translation presupposes the reading wa qâla, which is that of the native editions and of most MSS., my own included, assigning the following verses to the youth, whom his father quotes, as the son had done with the preceding verses belonging to the old man. De Sacy reads iẕ qâla, “when he said,” making the father to be their author also, and thereby to contradict himself by blaming contentment and resignation which he had praised and commended before. The editors of De Sacy’s second edition, in remarking that the former reading supports Rückert’s opinion on the point to the same effect, add with good reason, that only in this manner the Kadi’s indignation at the lad’s inconsistency becomes intelligible, who first refused to beg at his father’s injunction and now deems an appeal to the generous preferable to bearing distress patiently.
For Moses met it heretofore and al-Khaẓir did the same.—Al-Khaẓir, more commonly called al-Khiẓr, is the servant of God and companion of Moses, mentioned in the Sûra of the Cave, xviii., verse 76 of which relates the incident here alluded to: “Then went they on until they came to the people of a city. Of its people they asked food, but they refused them for guests.” The Mohammedans consider him to be one of the Prophets, who has survived from the time of Moses to the present age, and a legend says that he is present whenever his name has been pronounced, whence the following line of the poet Abû t̤-Ṭaiyib:
“As soon as we recall his liberality, he appears, far or near he hastens to the spot with the foot of al-Khizr.”
Temîmî at one time and Kaisî at another?—In the original Temîmî and Kaisî stand in the accusative or objective case, which is either that of condition (ḥâl), or depending on an elided verb: “Showest thou thyself at one time as a Temîmî, at another as a Kaisî, i.e., displayest thou alternately the lofty disposition of the tribe Temîm and the baseness of the tribe Kais? The form of interrogation has here the force of an assertion, implying reproof. To Temîmî compare the note, p. 225, above.
“By Him who has made thee a key for the truth, and an opener (fattàḥ) amongst mankind, meaning a dispenser of justice amongst them, as in Koran, vii. 87: “O our Lord! decide (lit., open) between us and between our people with truth, for Thou art the best of those who decide,” where the participle fâtiḥ, lit., one who opens, coincides with the more intensive form fattâḥ of the present passage.