Share this:

The poem below is one of Heimweh. The poetess credited with the poem, whether rightly or wrongly, is Maysūn bint Baḥdal b. Unayf al-Kalbiyya, the mother of Yazīd I and wife of Muʿāwiya, and she is said to have sung these lines after her husband brought her to Syria (al-Šām) from the desert home of her family. She came from a tribe predominantly Christian. (See the brief article about her by Lammens in EI² 6: 924. On her father, Baḥdal, see EI² 1: 919-920.) After the Arabic text, an English translation follows, together with a list of some vocabulary.

The poem’s rhyme-letter (rawī) is f, which is preceded by ī or ū, these two vowels being considered as rhyming (Wright, Grammar of the Arabic Language, vol. 2, § 196b). The text of the poem is given in Nöldeke-Müller, Delectus veterum carminum arabicorum, Porta Linguarum Orientalium 13 (Berlin, 1890), p. 25, and in Heinrich Thorbecke’s edition of Al-Ḥarīrī’s (EI² 3: 221-222) Durrat al-ġawwāṣ fī awhām al-ḫawwāṣ (Leipzig, 1871), pp. 41-42. (Nöldeke and Müller dedicated their Delectus to the memory of the recently departed Thorbecke.) The images below are from the latter book.

English’d:

Aye, dearer to me is a tent where the winds roar than a lofty palace.
Dearer to me is a rough woolen cloak with a happy heart than clothes of well-spun wool.
Dearer to me is a morsel of food at the side of the tent than a cake to eat.
Dearer to me are the sounds of winds in every mountain path than the tap of the tambourine.
Dearer to me is a dog barking at my night visitors than a familiar cat.
Dearer to me is a young, unyielding camel following a litter than an active mule.
And dearer to me is a thin generous man from among my cousins than a strong lavishly fed man.

Vocabulary and notes:

• ḫafaqa i to beat; (of wind) to roar
• qaṣr citadel, palace (on which see Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān, 240)
• munīf lofty, sublime, projecting
• ʿabāʾa cloak made of coarse wool
• qarra a i to be cool; with ʿayn eye, to be joyful, happy (Lane 2499c)
• šaff a garment of fine wool
• kusayra (dimin.) a small piece of something
• kisr side (of a tent). Note in this line the jinās, the use of two words of the same root but different meaning (see Arberry, Arabic Poetry, 21-23).
• raġīf cake
• faǧǧ wide path in the mountains
• naqr beat, crack, tap
• duff tambourine
• ṭāriq, pl. ṭurrāq someone who comes at night
• dūn here, before, opposite (Lane 938c)
• alūf familiar, sociable
• bakr young camel
• ṣaʿb difficult, unyielding
• baġl mule
• zafūf agile, active, quick
• ẓaʿīna a woman’s litter carried by camels
• ḫirq liberal, generous, bountiful
• naḥīf thin, slight, meager
• ʿilǧ “strong, sturdy man” (Lane)
• ʿalīf fatted, stuffed, fed

Share this:

Today (Aug 19) some churches celebrate the Transfiguration, and there are readings for the feast in published synaxaria in Arabic, Armenian, and Gǝʿǝz. A close reading and comparison of the language of these texts would be worthwhile, but now I’d like only to share part of the Gǝʿǝz reading, namely the three sälam verses that close the commemoration of the Transfiguration. (On the genre of the sälam, see this post.) Most typically, there is only one five-line verse in the Gǝʿǝz synaxarion at the end of the commemoration of a saint or holy event, but for this important feast there are three together, the verses ending, respectively, with the syllabic rhymes -ʿa/ʾa, -wä, -se. As usual, verses like this provide a good learning opportunity for students interested in Gǝʿǝz, both in terms of lexicon and grammar, the latter especially thanks to the freer arrangement of the sentence’s constituents that obtains in this kind of writing.

I give Guidi and Grébaut’s text from PO 9: 513-514, together with a new, rough English translation.

ሰላም፡ለታቦር፡እንተ፡ተሰምየ፡ወተጸውዓ።
ደብረ፡ጥሉለ፡ወደበረ፡ርጉዓ።
ባርቅ፡ሞአ፡በህየ፡ወኃይለ፡ሲሳራ፡ተሞአ።
ወቦቱ፡አሪጎ፡አመ፡ኢየሱስ፡ተሰብአ።
ምሥጢረ፡ምጽአቱ፡ዳግም፡ከሠተ፡ኅቡአ።

ሰላም፡ለዕርገትከ፡ዓቀበ፡ደብረ፡ታቦር፡ጽምወ።
እምብዙኃን፡ነሢአከ፡እለ፡ኃረይከ፡ዕደወ።
ኢየሱስ፡ዘኮንከ፡እምቤተ፡ይሁድ፡ሥግወ።
ርእየተ፡ገጽከ፡አምሳለ፡መብረቅ፡ሐተወ።
ወከመ፡በረድ፡ልብሰከ፡ፃዕደወ።

ፀርሐ፡አብ፡ኪያከ፡በውዳሴ።
ወርእስከ፡ጸለለ፡ምንፈሰ፡ቅዳሴ።
አመ፡ገበርከ፡በታቦር፡ምስለ፡ሐዋርያት፡ክናሴ።
ኤልያስ፡መንገለ፡ቆመ፡ወኀበ፡ሀለወ፡ሙሴ።[1]
ዘመለኮትከ፡ወልድ፡ከሠትከ፡ሥላሴ።

Greetings to Tabor, which is named and called
The fertile mountain and the firm mountain!
There Barak conquered, and the might of Sisera was conquered.
And having ascended [that mountain], when Jesus had become man,
He revealed the hidden mystery of his second coming.

Greetings to your ascent up the slope of Mount Tabor in tranquility!
Having taken the men you had chosen from among many,
Jesus, you who were incarnate from the house of Judah,
The appearance of your face shined like lightning,
And your clothes were as white as snow.

The Father proclaimed you in praise,
And the Spirit of holiness concealed your head.
When you had made an assembly of apostles,
Where Elijah was present and where Moses was,
You, Son, showed the trinity of your divinity.

Note

[1] The two prepositions in this line behave more like adverbs than prepositions, given that a relative pronoun pointing back to ክናሴ፡ in the previous line is omitted: “assembly at [which] Elijah was present and with [which] Moses was.” Cf. Dillmann, Gr., § 201.