Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded, with Risible Rhymes. Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī
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this iron device that is on his neck is a guarantee (ḍāminah) for him that he will not be able to get away, just like the man who acts as a guarantor (ḍāmin) for another and produces him when he is summonsed.
11.2.15
jubbatī (“my jubbah”): of the measure of shakhkhatī (“my pissing”) and liḥyatī (“my beard”), or so it is if the form refers to oneself; but, if it refers to someone else, you say jubbatak (“your jubbah”) on the pattern of shakhkhatak (“your pissing”) or liḥyatak (“your beard”), for example. If you were describing it and said jubbatak ḥamrah (“Your jubbah is red”), you could change the dots and it would become khanatak Ḥamzah, meaning “a man named Ḥamzah fucked you.”131 jubbah is the singular of jubab, derived from jabb, which means “cutting,” because the tailor tailors (yajubbu) the jubbah, that is, cuts (yaqṭaʿu) it and pieces it together. One also says jāba l-fayāfī (“he traversed open country”),132 meaning “he cut across it (qaṭaʿahā),” and in this vein I said:
I traverse (ajūbu) the open spaces, greedy for your arms,
And cross (aqṭaʿu) a land of which I have no knowledge.
The paradigm is jabba, yajubbu, jabban, and jubbatan.133
11.2.16
There are two types: the rural and the urban. The rural type is of thick, coarse wool, closed in front like a thawb. They make the sleeves wide, especially their poets. Indeed, they are known for the excessive width of their sleeves, for the men’s sleeves are made of cut-off sacks and are as wide as those of poets, or wider.134 As for their women, their sleeves are wide enough to accommodate a man, who can go in through one and come out by the other; thus a man may have intercourse with his wife via her sleeve without needing to raise the rest of her shift, as I myself have experienced, for I married one of these women and had intercourse with my wife via her sleeve on several occasions—so glory to Him who made them unkempt, even with regard to their sleeves and other raiment, for these are things by them desired, and consistency is required. As the proverb has it, “They saw an ape getting drunk on a dung heap and said, ‘For so pellucid a wine what better match than a youth so fine?’ And they saw a buffalo blinkered with a reed mat and said, ‘For so elegant a girl, what better match than so divine a veil?’”135 As the poet says:
I saw a leper deep down in a well
And another with vitiligo whose shit on him fell.
Said I, “Behold what your Lord hath wrought—
The like of a thing attracts its own sort!”
The urban sort is the one used by the people of the cities, especially scholars and sophisticates. It is of soft, fine wool, and they make it tight at the armpits and open in front. They call it a jubbah mufarrajah (“an open jubbah”) (with double r) because it has been opened (infarajat) at the wearer’s front and what is beneath may be seen. They add a silk or other trimming, so that the beholder is amazed by the sight and the wearer finds it a true delight—glory be to Him who has embellished such people with elegant raiment, bestowed on them every kind of pleasant form as adornment, and made their women an embellishment! As the proverb has it, “The foundation is according to the builder, and all things resemble their owner,” for men grow up according to their God-given natures to be as they ought, and the like of a thing attracts its own sort. In the same vein, I myself said:
I saw on his cheek both water and fire136
And, strewn about, those roses fair.
Said I, “Behold what my Lord hath wrought—
The like of a thing attracts its own sort!”
11.2.17
Next, the poet, realizing that the lice, nits, and other vermin present in the yoke of his jubbah were too many to be counted, decided to liken them to something resembling them in quantity and color, so he said:
11.2.18
shabīhu l-nukhālah (“are like bran”), which is the husks of wheat and barley that come to the top of the sieve when they are bolted. More information on this, and the etymology, are to come. This simile yields the likeness of the comparator from two perspectives. The first is that lice are white, and so is bran. The second is that, when they accumulate in heaps, they appear to the eye to be a lot, just as bran does. In other words, this is an appropriate comparison. The word nukhālah is derived from nakhl (“palm trees”) or from munkhal (“sieve”). In The Blue Ocean and Piebald Canon it says:
The noun nukhālah is derived, as they recall,
From munkhal and nakhīl137 and, finally, from minkhāl.138
Barley bran is the best for one because, if it is steeped in water and heated and someone suffering from chest pains drinks it, it will cure him, if the Almighty so wills.
11.2.19
yajrufuhū (“they shovel”): that is, the lice and the nits and their aforementioned relatives.
11.2.20
jarīf (“willy-nilly”): originally jarfan, because it is a verbal noun with the alif omitted, the ī being added for the sake of the rhyme; or it may be a rural form; in either case there can be no objection.139 It is derived from jarf or from mijrafah (“shovel”) or from jarrāfah (“shovel-sledge”). If it be said, “The poet ought to have referred the pronominal suffix of yajrufuhū to the nearest antecedent, namely, nukhālah,140 and this would have been more appropriate,” we say, “He may have avoided using a feminine pronominal suffix for the meter, because, if he had used one, the line would no longer have scanned;141 or it may be a case of truncation,142 as in the line143
Gently now, Fāṭim!144 A little less disdainful:
Even if you would cut my rope, do it kindly!
“—or he may have been referring it to the ‘husks of wheat and barley,’ which are called collectively nukhālah, in which case it should be taken as an example of the suppression of the first term of a genitive construct,145 so there can be no objection.” And if it also be said, “One might understand from the poet’s words that the lice and nits were confined exclusively to the yoke of his jubbah and there were none of them whatsoever on his body, in which case what would be the point in his complaining about them?” we would reply, “The answer may be that one might say that his words ‘in the yoke of my jubbah’ mean that most of the lice were accumulated in and had risen to the yoke of his jubbah and then, in their abundance, came to resemble bran when shoveled and that it does not necessarily follow from this wording that the rest of his body was free of them. Indeed, if they were present in the yoke of his jubbah in such quantities, then, a fortiori, there should be some on the rest of his body, for the body is where they live and derive their nourishment, by sucking blood and imbibing the body’s wastes. In fact, it is the way of lice to spread first in the clothes, then expand throughout the body, sucking out the bad blood; and those that have had their fill climb up to the top of the body and stay there to take the air and rest, just as humans, for example, having eaten their fill, rest by keeping quiet and sleeping. This is their habitual way of behaving, according to custom, so the answer now is clear.”
11.2.21
Question: How come the poet does not raise a complaint against bedbugs, ants, and gnats and omits all mention of them, despite the fact that each of these is responsible for great harm and injury? This question may be answered from several perspectives. The first is that bedbugs, though plentiful—as the proverb has it, “The bedbug gives birth to a hundred and says, ‘So few children!’”—in general favor only cities because of their tall buildings,