EthicalDative

The text I use is from A.J. Arberry, Arabic Poetry: A Primer for Students (Cambridge University Press, 1965). Arberry says the poem is likely not by ^Antara, but is in the spirit of “one of the greatest hero-poets of the sixth century” who “became in medieval Islam the central figure of an extensive popular romance.”

The speaker glorifies his prowess in battle, the gleam of whetted weapons, and the fiery spirit of his war horse. Two different words are used for “spear-head”: one is qarn ( pl. qurūn), which is “horn”. Early spear-heads were made of horns, according to Lane*. The other word used is sinān, from the root for “tooth.” The whiteness of the teeth is an analog for the gleam of polished metal, bright enough to guide the warrior as he moves in the night. At the end the speaker invites predators to nourish their offspring on the brains of “the people,” i.e., corpses strewn on the battlefield. There are 14 verses.

1 Wage war on me, nighttime travails, from my right side now, again from my left.
2 Do your utmost to be hostile and resist me: by God, you haven’t camped inside my head.

3 Mine is a determination harder than rock, stronger than towering mountains;
4 I have a sword with which I deal blows such as keen spear-heads fall away from;

5 And mine is a spear-head that guides me at night and keeps me from straying;
6 Mine a charger that has only to move to trail lightening from its spark-making shoes;

7 Dark in hue it cleaves the gloom with blackness, a crescent-moon blaze between its eyes;
8 It ransoms me with its life, I it with mine and with my treasure on the day of battle.

9 And when the market of war of the tall is afoot, ablaze with the sharpened and polished,
10 I am its broker and my spear-point a merchant purchasing valuable souls.

11 Predators of the desert, when war burns bright, follow me from the empty wastelands.
12 Follow me and see the blood of enemies flowing between the hills and the sands.

13 Then return and thank me, remembering what you’ve seen of my exploits,
14 And take food from the skulls of the people for your little ones and your cubs.

Notes
*Edward William Lane, Arabic English Lexicon, 1863 — reprint by Suhail Academy, Lahore, Pakistan, 2003)
9 I’ve kept the Arabic’s metonymy on the shaky premise that the resulting obscurity conveys a “modern” tone! “The tall” may be tall lances, “the sharpened and polished” swords and spear-heads.

(c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

In this complicated, ancient poem* I glimpse the life of squalid intrigue and dependency that was ever the courtier’s lot. At the mercy of the tyrant’s whim and the plots of competitors, his is a routine of flattery, complaint and cunning self-promotion. Skill with panegyric is a tool for survival.

A brute comparison of the Arabic text’s word count to that of my paraphrase highlights Arabic’s extraordinary facility for compression.

As a matter of style, consider verse 6. The English speaker yearns for active voice, yet the Arabic verbs are passive, as if to underscore the speaker’s lack of agency in the matter of his own welfare.

At the end, verses 11 and 12 twist fulsome praise of the patron, self-abasement and special pleading into a tight weave of indirection.

1 Word reached me — may you shun cursed behavior! — that you blamed me and things over which I am vexed and exhausted.
2 So I spent the night nagged by thoughts that seemed to spread a spiny bush for me, by which my bed was tossed and poisoned.

3 I swore, leaving no doubt in your mind — and beyond God there is no escape for a person.
4 If you’ve been whispered to about treachery on my part, your slandering informant is a conniving liar,

5 Whereas I am a man with a tract of land on which to wander and find retreat.
6 With kings and brothers, when I’ve come to them, I’ve been made responsible for their possessions and treated as an intimate,

7 Just as you’ve done with persons I’ve seen you favor, and yet not consider to have sinned from lack of gratitude.
8 For you are a sun, and other kings are stars; when (your sun) rises, not one of those stars appears.

9 Don’t leave me with the threat as though I were, to the people, smeared with tar, covered in scabs.
10 Don’t you see how God has given you power, and how every monarch quakes before it?

11 You are not one to spare a brother whom you have not straightened out. What man is the refined one?
12 If I am wronged, I’m a slave you have treated badly; and if you are disposed to restore me to your good graces, a man like you grants favor.

Notes
*The text I use is A.J. Arberry’s Arabic Poetry, A Primer for Students, Cambridge University Press, 1965.
1 may you shun cursed behavior: Lane: (A greeting addressed to kings): “Mayest thou refuse… to do a thing that would occasion thy being cursed…”
2 tossed: the Arabic says “lifted” or “raised.”
3 I swore: Presumably an oath of innocence invoking God’s name.
4 slandering: the Arabic says “embroidering” or “embellishing.”
5 I am a man: I.e., man of substance.
11 Which man…etc. I.e. “Which man can claim to be truly refined?”
12 Key words are verb yu^tibu and its derivative ^utbā. Of the latter, Lane says: “Its primary signification is the returning of one whose good will, or favour, has been solicited, or desired, to the love of his companion.” As an example of the former, Lane translates ‘a^taba-hu as: “He granted him his good will, or favour; regarded him with good will, or favour; became well pleased, content, or satisfied, with him.”

(c) 2023 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved