(Footnote: I think those lords and masters of ours alluded to above failed to hear my advice and that as a result my words to them have gone with the wind.)
(Notice: I have gone on at some length in this chapter that is about to bid you farewell so as to match the one on marriage.)
(1) ajaḥḥat al-marʾah (“the woman approached term”) means “she conceived and came close to her time and her belly grew large.”
(1) One says dhaʾaṭa, of which the verbal noun [as here] is dhaʾṭ, [and also] zaʿaṭa, ẓaʾaṭa, daghata, dhaʾata, dhaʿata, zaʿata, zarata, and saʾata, all meaning “he throttled.”
(1) arḍaka ʿaynayh (“he blinked his eyes”) means “he opened and closed them.”
(1) taqāfasā bi-shuʿūrihimā (“they clasped each other by their hair”); faqasa fulānan means “he pulled so-and-so downward by his hair”, from which [the verb of reciprocity] tafāqasā.
(1) There is something unclear to me in the definition of taqrīm: it may well be that taʿlīm is used here in the sense of ʿalāmah (“marking”), in which case akl (“eating”) would mean ṭaʿām (“food”)138 and the sense would be the same as that in his entry (root r-s-m) “rasm: a piece of wood with writing carved into it used to stamp food” and (root r-sh-m) which is too well-known to require definition [“to write”]: “rashama l-ṭaʿām: he stamped it”; if not, it is in its correct place.
CHAPTER 13: A MAQĀMAH TO MAKE ONE STAND
3.13.1
Faid al-Hāwif ibn Hifām in lifping tones,141 “By the Recoiler I was seduced” (I seek refuge with God from such an introduction!) “—that Recoiler who whispers in men’s ears every dark thought and all that feeds their fears—into thinking I’d married a woman cunning and deceitful, loudmouthed and lustful, shrewish and frigid, censorious and rigid, one moment vanished without trace, the next in your face, a woman lewd and rude, answering questions never asked, throwing down the gauntlet with none to take to task, proposing things to which no coin could aspire, and casting me into perils ringed about with fire. Thus at times my way was one of restraint, at others of complaint—at which she’d grow yet more wicked and more of a prig (though for my reproaches she cared not a fig). I then said to myself, ‘By God, either it’s the cold shoulder and making her think I’ve no interest in her snatch, or I roam the earth to see if I can find her match.’ I chose the second view, having first sought protection through Qur’anic recitation, and left my house despondent and downcast, full of misogynistic exasperation.
3.13.2
“Before I’d gone too far upon the road, a flock of them suddenly past me strode, each strutting in a garment woven tight and jewelry that shone bright, their antique perfume wafting to horizons infinite. Among them I beheld the slim-waisted and the plump, the handsome, radiant sisters to the houris of the Garden, curers, through their blandishments, of those whose members never harden. With them my soul hankered to have union, by their beauty my mind was driven to confusion, and, forgetting the humiliations I’d suffered at home, exclaimed, ‘Would that you were mine (should wishing be of any use)!’ and then declaimed
I see sweetness in the women walking by
Though I wonder, do they in their harems still beguile?
In my hussy wife, however, be she walking or standing still,
I find naught but hatred, aversion, and cause for bile.
With my eye I see her as she is—
Could she, even to a blind man (which I am not), be less than vile?
3.13.3
“One, with a neck like that of a deer, eyebrow like the crescent moon should it appear, now addressed me and said, ‘Don’t take it so hard: you’re not alone among men. My husband has written, with his pen,
I ponder the base nature of my wife
And hate all members of the feminine gender,
But then recall not all of them are she,
And toward all of them feel equally tender.’
“Then another, her brow with morning’s light all wreathed, her glances as like to draw blood as a sword unsheathed, turned to me and said, ‘Hear how my husband has descried me, and be not one of those who vilify me:
My wife tries her hand at every art
Fearing no embarrassment or sophisticate’s rebuff.
Though she be mistaken on every issue,
One mistake she never makes is to cry “Enough!”’
3.13.4
“Then another — her sweat in beads like pearls, dark as night her curls—came up to me and said, ‘Listen to what my husband has composed and see what if any likeness may be supposed:
More than anything, my wife wants me as a slave
A pathetic creature at her beck and call.
Should she though hanker for what can’t be got,
I have to play Creator and meet her needs in full.’
“Then another — shimmying with pride and coquetry, her smile revealing teeth of unequalled symmetry—approached and said, ‘Here’s what my partner recited to me our first night, and has since proclaimed, with persistent sorrow for his plight:
My wife, by nature’s gift, has twice my share
Of lips and mouths and fauces.
How can I be meant to satisfy her then,
When she keeps crying, “Give me more, please! Give me more, please!”?
Some member of mine will have to be doubled.
If not, watch for the commission of farces!’
3.13.5
“Then the fifth — shier than a deer in its covert out of sight—came toward me and said, ‘Let me recite what my old man said, on the sixth night, to wit: