The internet is a strange and wonderful resource and among its wonders is The New Inquiry's Sunday Reading. This week's SR has a contribution by kitabet that I went and read, because who doesn't like cats, especially when their paws have been dyed with henna?
Exploring David Larsen's blog, I found his translations from Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's, I suppose it's an anthology? called 'The Unique Necklace'.
Here's a short portion from that post, because it's not a single poem, but a collection of responses in verse.
Read the whole post here.
from The Unique Necklace
by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih translated by David Larsen
Abu 'l-Bakhtarī said: The tales I used to hear of Abū Fahma, a madman of Baghdad with a gift for poetic improvisation, led me to seek him out. Our meeting came about in a lane of the city, where I said to him, "How are you today, Abū Fahma?" He replied in verse:
"Today I awake at the edge of a cliff. Through you
the way lies open to the wellsprings of my ruin.
I see you turning, but not toward me.
Whose heart is least corrupt you least attend.
O you whose absence prolongs my lovesickness:
it is a sickness with more regret in it than love."
Abu 'l-Bakhtarī said: At this I withdrew from my sleeve a small bouquet of narcissus, and pressed it on him with my wishes that God prolong his life. He stood smelling them for a time, then delivered these verses:
"On my wedding day, there came from the South great spattering
clouds decked out with rain so black that they were brown.
Then kicked in the East Wind with its fecundating showers,
and the curtailment of our nuptials was hard to bear.
Our babe was born still. Labor pains came on,
and there was parturition, and that was the issue.
Springtime wove a shroud, and as one hand
the dew and breeze gave color to its fabric.
It was [this] flower's composite yellow, white petals
cupping ornaments of unsmithed gold
on emerald columns raised aloft with the morning,
like unto the sun in eye-like beauty."
Exploring David Larsen's blog, I found his translations from Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's, I suppose it's an anthology? called 'The Unique Necklace'.
Here's a short portion from that post, because it's not a single poem, but a collection of responses in verse.
Read the whole post here.
from The Unique Necklace
by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih translated by David Larsen
Abu 'l-Bakhtarī said: The tales I used to hear of Abū Fahma, a madman of Baghdad with a gift for poetic improvisation, led me to seek him out. Our meeting came about in a lane of the city, where I said to him, "How are you today, Abū Fahma?" He replied in verse:
"Today I awake at the edge of a cliff. Through you
the way lies open to the wellsprings of my ruin.
I see you turning, but not toward me.
Whose heart is least corrupt you least attend.
O you whose absence prolongs my lovesickness:
it is a sickness with more regret in it than love."
Abu 'l-Bakhtarī said: At this I withdrew from my sleeve a small bouquet of narcissus, and pressed it on him with my wishes that God prolong his life. He stood smelling them for a time, then delivered these verses:
"On my wedding day, there came from the South great spattering
clouds decked out with rain so black that they were brown.
Then kicked in the East Wind with its fecundating showers,
and the curtailment of our nuptials was hard to bear.
Our babe was born still. Labor pains came on,
and there was parturition, and that was the issue.
Springtime wove a shroud, and as one hand
the dew and breeze gave color to its fabric.
It was [this] flower's composite yellow, white petals
cupping ornaments of unsmithed gold
on emerald columns raised aloft with the morning,
like unto the sun in eye-like beauty."
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