3.12.17
He continued, “Even stranger, I would observe the emirs sitting on rush mats and lying down on them and going to sleep, all together on a single mat, and at times making do with eggs, rice, and milk in place of squabs, chickens, or hens and going without wine, fruit, or nuts. Their feet were visible, for when they sat down on a mat they’d take their footwear off and put it close to them, keeping it in sight. Also, one of their servants might be observed standing at (meaning next to, not on top of) the head of one of them with a spoon in his belt and another with a silver drinking cup in the front of his robe, as a sign of how rich their emir was and how he belonged to that class of people that did not want for things to spoon or drink. Such an emir would sit there with his head bowed — no book to read, no companion to keep him company, no musical instrument to entertain him — and spend hours of the day thus occupied; indeed he might spend a whole day, or days, and never set eyes on a woman, till his eyes went blurry, his thoughts darkened, he got cross, and his stomach shriveled.
3.12.18
“What a contrast with the salons of the Franks, which are adorned with cushions of precious stuffs and spread with luxurious carpets that are trod by footwear and over which lovely women come and go! A slim-bellied lass may do them the honor of a step, a delicate maiden that of a skip, a radiant girl that of a twirl, a big-bosomed woman that of a shake, a big-buttocked one that of a tumble. Who then can put up with a state such as theirs? O emir of the gathering, member of the elite and thrower of the palm-branch javelin136 at the sons of men from the back of your horses fleet, tell your servant, the carrier of the cup, to remove your footwear from before you! Or better still, put it on and come with me to the lands of the Franks, there to see their emirs with their arms around the waists of their wives and children, proceeding with them to the parks, gardens, and other places of diversion, sport, and enjoyment. No guilt adheres to their wives if they smile or turn their heads or look people in the face or walk languidly or move their eyes here and there or run hither and thither or walk with their legs not close together or walk awkwardly or walk in a comely fashion or take long strides or fall down, nor to their children if they leap and have fun. Even if these emirs spend a sleepless night, they do so on comfortably made-up beds with their comfortably upholstered wives. Would that I knew why you do not add, to the number of these manservants, boy servants, lackeys and flunkeys, pageboys, domestics, valets and maids, assistants, majordomos and retainers who surround you, three players of stringed instruments to scour from your mind, every day in the late afternoon or during dinner, the rust of worry caused by your loneliness and isolation.
3.12.19
“Permit me likewise to entreat you to allow your neighbors to come and share with you in your enjoyment, that they may pray for the continued success of your governance, the continuation of your permanence, the immortalization of your felicity, and the sublimity of your upward mobility, and to ask you, why not set aside a day each year as a holiday to celebrate your birthday or that of your lady wife or your children, God protect them, as a day of joy and happiness for you and all who pertain to you on which you might hold a banquet and invite to it both commons and elite? Where’s the good in your throwing the palm-branch javelin and injuring your wretched enslaved page’s shoulder, or his molar, leaving him unable to eat? At it you will forget even the best, truest, most accurate, and deadliest of throws. At it you will be safe from anyone telling you, ‘Boo! Boo!’—quite the opposite: they’ll tell you, ‘Bravo! Bravo!’—not to mention from the pain caused by the throwing of the javelin to your sweet-smelling, high-class armpit.
3.12.20
“And what benefit is there in your page standing before you with a spoon in his belt or a tray on his head or a trencher and wine pitcher on his chest or a glass and a wooden cup in his hand or a table on his shoulder or an earthenware pot around his neck when you don’t eat with your lady wife and her children or take your son and put him on your knee, or carry him on your back, or bow your head so he can jump on top of it or place him in your lap or hug him, or carry him on your hip, or embrace him, or turn your cheek to him so he can kiss you, or let him play with your mustache or bite your finger or your nose so he can laugh a little (and I a lot), or feed him with your hand so he may feel that you are his benefactor, or eat something he has been chewing on, or mount him on a donkey foal and let him ride it, or sing to him at night so he may go to sleep to the sound of your voice and wake in the morning singing you a song more enchanting than that of the phoenix or of Maʿbad137 or Abū l-Baddāḥ or Siwāṭ or al-ʿAthʿath or Khalīlān or ʿAmr ibn Bānah or al-Zunnām or Mamdūd ibn ʿAbd al-Wāsiṭ al-Rabbānī or Zalzal or ʿIrfān or al-Jarādatān or Ibnat ʿAfzar or Sallāmah or Shamūl or Ibn Jāmiʿ al-Sahmī or Dubays or Raqīq or Ibn Muḥraz or al-Mashdūd or Hāshim ibn Sulaymān or Daḥmān al-Ashqar or Ṭuways or Ibn Shurayḥ or al-Dalāl ibn ʿAbd al-Naʿīm or Ibn Ṭunbūr al-Yamanī or Ḥakam al-Wādī or Ibrāhīm al-Mawṣilī or more heartrending than
3.12.21
the runum or the voice of any duʿbub gharīḍ,
runum are “celebrated women singers”; gharīḍ means “a celebrated male singer” and duʿbub means the same
or tubaʾbiʾ him or speak lovingly to him,
baʾbaʾahu means “he told him, ‘I would give my father as your ransom!’”
or speak endearments to him or tubāghim him,
bāghamahu means “he spoke to him in a caressing voice.”
or tunādigh him or tarʾam him,
nādaghahu means “he flirted with him” and raʾimat al-nāqah waladahā means “[the she-camel] displayed affection for her child, and she stayed close by it.”
or tunaghghir him or tarkhum him,
naghghara l-ṣabī means “he tickled him,” synonym naghghazahu; rakhamat al-marʾatu waladahā means “[the woman] played with [her child].”
or watch over him or turaʿʿim him,
raʿʿamahu means “he wiped away his ruʿām,” meaning “his nasal mucus”; however, the author of the Qāmūs prescribes “[the nasal mucus of] a woman” as the object of the verb; in fact, the obvious way to understand his phrasing is “he wiped away the nasal mucus of a ruʿmūm (meaning ‘a smooth-skinned woman’).” Whatever the case, we beg pardon for them both.