(CALLED "OF HOLWAN")[16]
Al Harith, son of Hammam, related: Ever since my amulets were doffed
and my turbans were donned, I was eager to visit learning's seat and
to jade to it the camels of seeking, that through it I might cleave
to what would be my ornament among men, my rain-cloud in thirst.
And through the excess of my longing to kindle at it, and my desire
to robe myself in its raiment, I discussed with every one, great and
small, and sought my draught both of the rain-flood and the dew, and
solaced myself with hope and desire. Now when I descended at Holwan,
and had already tried the brethren, and tested their values, and proved
what was worthless or fine, I found there Abu Zayd of Seruj, shifting
among the varieties of pedigree, beating about in various courses of
gain-getting; for at one time he claimed to be of the race of Sasan,
and at another he made himself kin to the princes of Ghassan; and
now he sallied forth in the vesture of poets; and anon he put on the
pride of nobles. And yet with all this diversifying of his condition,
and this display of contradiction, he is adorned with grace and
information, and courtesy and knowledge, and astonishing eloquence,
and obedient improvisation, and excelling accomplishments, and a
foot that mounts the hills of the sciences. Now, through his goodly
attainments he is associated with in spite of his faults; and through
the largeness of his information there is a fondness for the sight of
him; and through the blandishment of his fair-speaking men are loath
to oppose him; and through the sweetness of his address he is helped
to his desire. Then I clung to his skirts for the sake of his peculiar
accomplishments, and valued highly his affection by reason of his
precious qualities.
With him I wiped away my cares, and beheld my fortune displayed to me,
open of face, gleaming with light.
I looked upon his nearness to me as kinship, his abiding as wealth,
his aspect as a full draught, his life as rain.
Thus we remained a long season; he produced for me daily some
pleasantness, and drove some doubt from my heart, until the hand
of want mixed for him the cup of parting, and the lack of a meal
urged him to abandon Irak; and the failures of supply cast him into
desert regions, and the waving of the banner of distress ranged him
in the line of travelers; and he sharpened for departure the edge of
determination, and journeyed away, drawing my heart with his leading
cord.
After he was gone none pleased me who kept by me, none filled me with
affection by urging me to intimacy.
Since he strayed away none has appeared to me his like in excellence;
no friend has gotten the equal of his qualities.
So he was hidden from me a season: I knew not his lair; I found none
to tell of him; but when I had returned from my wandering to the place
where my branch had sprouted, I was once present in the town library,
which is the council-hall of scholars, the meeting-place of residents
and strangers: Then there entered one with a thick beard and a squalid
aspect, and he saluted those who sat, and took seat in the last rows
of the people. Then began he to produce what was in his wallet, and to
astonish those present by the sagacity of his judgment. And he said to
the man who was next him, "What is the book into which thou lookest?"
He said, "The poems of Abu 'Obadeh; him of whose excellence men bear
witness." He said, "In what thou hast seen hast thou hit on any fine
thing which thou admirest?" He said, "Yes; the line,
As though she smiled from strung pearls or hailstones, or
camomile-flowers.
For it is original in the use of similitude which it contains." He said
to him, "Here is a wonder! here is a lack of taste, Sir, thou hast
taken for fat what is only swollen; thou hast blown on that which is no
fuel: where art thou in comparison with the rare verse which unites the
similitudes of the teeth?
My life a ransom for those teeth whose beauty charms, and which a
purity adorns sufficing thee for all other.
She parts her lips from fresh pearls, and from hail-stones, and from
camomile-flowers, and from the palm-shoot, and from bubbles.
Then each one approved the couplet and admired it, and bade him repeat
it and dictate it. And he was asked, "Whose is this verse, and is its
author living or dead?" He said, "By Allah, right is most worthy to be
followed, and truth is most fitting to be listened to: Know, friends,
that it is his who talks with you to-day." Said Al Harith: Now it was
as though the company doubted of his fathering, and were unwilling to
give credit to his claim. And he perceived what had fallen into their
thoughts, and was aware of their inward unbelief; and was afraid that
blame might chance to him, or ill-fame reach him; so he quoted from
the Koran, "Some suspicions are a sin." Then he said, "O ye reciters
of verse, physicians of sickly phrase!—Truly the purity of the gem
is shown by the testing, and the hand of truth rends the cloak of
doubt.—Now it was said aforetime that by trial is a man honored or
contemned. So come! I now expose my hidden store to the proving, I
offer my saddle-bag for comparison." Then hastened one who was there
and said: "I know a verse such that there is no weaving on its beam,
such that no genius can supply one after its image. Now, if thou wish
to draw our hearts to thee, compose after this style:
She rained pearls from the daffodil, and watered the rose, and bit
upon the _'unnab_ with hail-stone.
And it was but the glance of an eye, or less, before he recited rarely:
I asked her when she met me to put off her crimson veil, and to endow
my hearing with the sweetest of tidings:
And she removed the ruddy light which covered the brightness of her
moon, and she dropped pearls from a perfumed ring.
Then all present were astonished at his readiness, and acknowledged his
honesty. And when he perceived that they approved his diction, and were
hastening into the path of honoring him, he looked down the twinkling
of an eye; then he said, "Here are two other verses for you"; and
recited:
She came on the day when departure afflicted, in black robes, biting
her fingers like one regretful, confounded:
And night lowered on her morn, and a branch supported them both, and
she bit into crystal with pearls.
Then did the company set high his value, and deem that his steady rain
was a plenteous one; and they made pleasant their converse with him,
and gave him goodly clothing. Said the teller of this story: Now when
I saw the blazing of his firebrand, and the gleam of his unveiled
brightness, I fixed a long look to guess at him, and made my eye to
stray over his countenance. And lo! he was our Shaykh of Seruj; but
now his dark night was moon-lit. Then I congratulated myself on his
coming thither, and hastened to kiss his hand: and said to him, "What
has changed thy appearance, so that I could not recognize thee? what
has made thy beard gray, so that I knew not thy countenance?" And he
indited and said:
The stroke of calamities makes us hoary, and fortune to men is a
changer.
If it yields to-day to any, to-morrow it overcomes him.
Trust not the gleam of its lightning, for it is a deceitful gleam.
But be patient if it hounds calamities against thee, and drives them
on.
For there is no disgrace on the pure gold when it is turned about in
the fire.
Then he rose and departed from his place, and carried away our hearts
with him.