(CALLED "OF KAYLAH")[17]
Al Harith, son of Hammam, related: I was set with some comrades in
a company wherein he that made appeal was never bootless, and the
rubbing of the fire-shafts never failed, and the flame of contention
never blazed. And while we were catching from each other the cues of
recitations, and betaking ourselves to novelties of anecdote, behold
there stood by us one on whom was a worn garment, and in whose walk
was a limp. And he said, O ye best of treasures, joys of your kindred:
Health to you this morning; may ye enjoy your morning draught. Look
on one who was erewhile master of guest-room and largess, wealth and
bounty, land and villages, dishes and feasting. But the frowning of
calamities ceased not from him, and the warrings of sorrows, and
the fire-flakes of the malice of the envious, and the succession of
dark befallings, until the court was empty, and the yard was bare,
and the fountain sank, and the dwelling was desolate, and the hall
was void, and the chamber stone-strewed. And fortune shifted so that
the household wailed; and the stalls were vacant, so that the rival
had compassion; and the cattle and the goods they perished, so that
the envious and malignant pitied. And to such a pass did we come,
through assailing fortune and prostrating need, that we were shod with
soreness, and fed on choking, and filled our bellies with ache, and
wrapped our entrails upon hunger, and anointed our eyes with watching,
and made pits our home, and deemed thorns a smooth bed, and came to
forget our saddles, and thought destroying death to be sweet, and the
ordained day to be tardy. And now is there any one generous to heal,
bountiful to bestow? For by him who made me to spring from Kaylah,
surely I am now a brother of penury, I have not a night's victual.
Said Al Harith, son of Hammam: Now I pitied his distresses, and
inclined to the eliciting of his rhymes. So I drew forth for him a
denar, and said to him, to prove him, "If thou praise it in verse it
is thine, full surely." And he betook himself to recite on the spot,
borrowing nothing:
How noble is that yellow one, whose yellowness is pure,
Which traverses the regions, and whose journeying is afar.
Told abroad are its fame and repute:
Its lines are set as the secret sign of wealth;
Its march is coupled with the success of endeavors;
Its bright look is loved by mankind;
As though its ore had been molten of their hearts.
By its aid whoever has gotten it in his purse assails boldly,
Though kindred be perished, or tardy to help.
Oh charming are its purity and brightness;
Charming are its sufficiency and help.
How many a ruler is there whose rule has been perfected by it!
How many a sumptuous one is there whose grief, but for it,
would be endless!
How many a host of cares has one charge of it put to flight!
How many a full moon has a sum of it brought down!
How many a one burning with rage, whose coal is flaming,
Has it been secretly whispered to, and then his anger has softened.
How many a prisoner, whom his kin had yielded,
Has it delivered, so that his gladness has been unmingled,
Now by the Truth of the Lord whose creation brought it forth,
Were it not for his fear, I should say its power is supreme.
Then he stretched forth his hand after his recitation, and said, "The
honorable man performs what he promises, and the rain-cloud pours if
it has thundered." So I threw him the denar, and said, "Take it; no
grudging goes with it." And he put it in his mouth and said, "God bless
it." Then he girt up his skirts for departure, after that he had paid
his thanks. But there arose in me, through his pleasantry, a giddiness
of desire which made me ready to incur indebtedness. So I bared another
denar, and said, "Does it suit thee to blame this, and then gather it?"
And he recited impromptu, and sang with speed:
Ruin on it for a deceiver and insincere,
The yellow one with two faces like a hypocrite!
It shows forth with two qualities to the eye of him that looks on it,
The adornment of the loved one, the color of the lover.
Affection for it, think they who judge truly,
Tempts men to commit that which shall anger their Maker.
But for it no thief's right hand were cut off;
Nor would tyranny be displayed by the impious;
Nor would the niggard shrink from the night-farer;
Nor would the delayed claimant mourn the delay of him that withholds;
Nor would men call to God from the envious who casts at them.
Moreover, the worst quality that it possesses
Is that it helps thee not in straits,
Save by fleeing from thee like a runaway slave.
Well done he who casts it away from a hill-top,
And who, when it whispers to him with the whispering of a lover,
Says to it in the words of the truth-speaking, the veracious,
"I have no mind for intimacy with thee—begone!"
Then said I to him, "How abundant is thy shower!" He said, "Agreement
binds strongest." So I tossed him the second denar and said,
"Consecrate them both with the Twice-read Chapter." He cast it into
his mouth and joined it with its twin, and turned away blessing his
morning's walk, praising the assembly and its bounty. Said Al Harith,
son of Hammam: Now my heart whispered me that he was Abu Zayd, and
that his going lame was for a trick; so I called him back and said to
him, "Thou art recognized by thy eloquence, so straighten thy walk."
He said, "If thou be the son of Hammam, be thou greeted with honor
and live long among the honorable." I said, "I am Harith; but what is
thy condition amid all thy fortunes." He said, "I change between two
conditions, distress and ease; and I veer with two winds, the tempest
and the breeze." I said, "And how hast thou pretended lameness? the
like of thee plays not buffoon." Then his cheerfulness, which had shone
forth, waned; but he recited as he moved away:
I have feigned to be lame, not from love of lameness, but that I may
knock at the gate of relief.
For my cord is thrown on my neck, and I go as one who ranges freely.
Now if men blame me I say, "Excuse me: sure there is no guilt on the
lame."