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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10




[FN#435] I cannot but vehemently suspect that this legend was
taken from much older traditions. We have Jubal the semi-mythical
who, "by the different falls of his hammer on the anvil,
discovered by the ear the first rude music that pleased the
antediluvian fathers." Then came Pythagoras, of whom Macrobius
(lib. ii ) relates how this Graeco-Egyptian philosopher, passing
by a smithy, observed that the sounds were grave or acute
according to the weights of the hammers; and he ascertained by
experiment that such was the case when different weights were
hung by strings of the same size. The next discovery was that two
strings of the same substance and tension, the one being double
the length of the other, gave the diapason-interval, or an
eighth; and the same was effected from two strings of similar
length and size, the one having four times the tension of the
other. Belonging to the same cycle of invention-anecdotes are
Galileo's discovery of the pendulum by the lustre of the Pisan
Duomo; and the kettle-lid, the falling apple and the copper hook
which inspired Watt, Newton and Galvani.

[FN#436] To what an absurd point this has been carried we may
learn from Ibn Khallikan (i. 114). A poet addressing a single
individual does not say "My friend!" or "My friends!" but "My two
friends!" (in the dual) because a Badawi required a pair of
companions, one to tend the sheep and the other to pasture the
camels.

[FN#437] For further details concerning the Sabab, Watad and
Fasilah, see at the end of this Essay the learned remarks of Dr.
Steingass.


[FN#438] e.g., the Mu'allakats of "Amriolkais," Tarafah and
Zuhayr compared by Mr. Lyall (Introduction to Translations) with
the metre of Abt Vogler, e.g.,

Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is told

[FN#439] e.g., the Poem of Hareth which often echoes the
hexameter

[FN#440] Gladwin, p. 80.

[FN#441] Gladwin (p. 77) gives only eight, omitting F ' l which
he or his author probably considers the Muzahaf, imperfect or
apocoped form of F ' l n, as M f ' l of M f ' l n. For the
infinite complications of Arabic prosody the Khafif (soft
breathing) and Sahih (hard breathing); the Sadr and Aruz (first
and last feet), the Ibtida and Zarb (last foot of every line);
the Hashw (cushion-stuffing) or body part of verse, the 'Amud
al-Kasidah or Al-Musammat (the strong) and other details I must
refer readers to such specialists as Freytag and Sam. Clarke
(Prosodia Arabica), and to Dr. Steingass's notes infra.

[FN#442] The Hebrew grammarians of the Middle Ages wisely copied
their Arab cousins by turning Fa'la into Pael and so forth.

[FN#443] Mr. Lyall, whose "Ancient Arabic Poetry" (Williams and
Norgate, 1885) I reviewed in The Academy of Oct. 3, '85, did the
absolute reverse of what is required: he preserved the metre and
sacrificed the rhyme even when it naturally suggested itself. For
instance in the last four lines of No. xii. what would be easier
than to write,

Ah sweet and soft wi' thee her ways: bethink thee well! The day
shall be
When some one favoured as thyself shall find her fair and fain
and free;
And if she swear that parting ne'er shall break her word of
constancy,
When did rose-tinted finger-tip with pacts and pledges e'er
agree?

[FN#444] See p. 439 Grammatik des Arabischen Vulgaer Dialekts von
AEgyptian, by Dr. Wilhelm Spitta Bey, Leipzig, 1880. In pp.
489-493 he gives specimens of eleven Mawawil varying in length
from four to fifteen lines. The assonance mostly attempts
monorhyme: in two tetrastichs it is aa + ba, and it does not
disdain alternates, ab + ab + ab.

[FN#445] Al-Siyuti, p. 235, from Ibn Khallikan. Our knowledge of
oldest Arab verse is drawn chiefly from the Katab al-Aghani
(Song-book) of Abu al-Faraj the Isfahani who flourished A.H.
284-356 (= 897- 967): it was printed at the Bulak Press in 1868.

[FN#446] See Lyall loc. cit. p. 97.

[FN#447] His Diwan has been published with a French translation,
par R. Boucher, Paris, Labitte, 1870.

[FN#448] I find also minor quotations from the Imam Abu al-Hasan
al-Askari (of Sarra man raa) ob. A.D. 868; Ibn Makula (murdered
in A.D. 862?), Ibn Durayd (ob. A.D. 933)
Al-Zahr the Poet (ob. A.D. 963); Abu Bakr al-Zubaydi (ob. A.D.
989), Kabus ibn Wushmaghir (murdered in A.D. 1012-13); Ibn
Nabatah the Poet (ob. A.D. 1015), Ibn al-Sa'ati (ob. A.D. 1028);
Ibn Zaydun al-Andalusi who died at Hums (Emessa, the Arab name
for Seville) in A.D. 1071; Al-Mu'tasim ibn Sumadih (ob. A.D.
1091), Al-Murtaza ibn al-Shahrozuri the Sufi (ob. A.D. 1117); Ibn
Sara al-Shantarani (of Santarem) who sang of Hind and died A.D.
1123; Ibn al-Khazin (ob. A.D. 1124), Ibn Kalakis (ob. A D. 1172)
Ibn al-Ta'wizi (ob. A.D. 1188); Ibn Zabadah (ob. A.D. 1198), Baha
al-Din Zuhayr (ob A.D. 1249); Muwaffak al-Din Muzaffar (ob. A.D.
1266) and sundry others. Notices of Al-Utayyah (vol. i. 11), of
Ibn al-Sumam (vol. i. 87) and of Ibn Sahib al-Ishbili, of Seville
(vol. i. 100), are deficient. The most notable point in Arabic
verse is its savage satire, the language of excited
"destructiveness" which characterises the Badawi: he is "keen for
satire as a thirsty man for water:" and half his poetry seems to
consist of foul innuendo, of lampoons, and of gross personal
abuse.

[FN#449] If the letter preceding Waw or Ya is moved by Fathah,
they produce the diphthongs au (aw), pronounced like ou in
"bout'" and se, pronounced as i in "bite."

[FN#450] For the explanation of this name and those of the
following terms, see Terminal Essay, p. 225.

[FN#451] This Fasilah is more accurately called sughra, the
smaller one, there is another Fasilah kubra, the greater,
consisting of four moved letters followed by a quiescent, or of a
Sabab sakil followed by a Watad majmu'. But it occurs only as a
variation of a normal foot, not as an integral element in its
composition, and consequently no mention of it was needed in the
text.

[FN#452] It is important to keep in mind that the seemingly
identical feet 10 and 6, 7 and 3, are distinguished by the
relative positions of the constituting elements in either pair.
For as it will be seen that Sabab and Watad are subject to
different kinds of alterations it is evident that the effect of
such alterations upon a foot will vary, if Sabab and Watad occupy
different places with regard to each other.

[FN#453] i.e. vertical to the circumference.

[FN#454] This would be a Fasilah kubra spoken of in the note p.
239.

[FN#455] In pause that is at the end of a line, a short vowel
counts either as long or is dropped according to the exigencies
of the metre. In the Hashw the u or i of the pronominal affix for
the third person sing., masc., and the final u of the enlarged
pronominal plural forms, humu and kumu, may be either short or
long, according to the same exigencies. The end-vowel of the
pronoun of the first person ana, I, is generally read short,
although it is written with Alif.

[FN#456] On p. 236 the word akamu, as read by itself, was
identified with the foot Fa'ulun. Here it must be read together
with the following syllable as "akamulwaj," which is Mafa'ilun.

[FN#457] Prof. Palmer, p. 328 of his Grammar, identifies this
form of the Wafir, when every Mufa' alatum of the Hashw has
become Mafa'ilun, with the second form of the Rajaz It should be
Hazaj. Professor Palmer was misled, it seems, by an evident
misprint in one of his authorities, the Muhit al-Dairah by Dr.
Van Dayk, p. 52.

[FN#458] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac 134b "The Merchant's Wife
and the Parrot."

[FN#459] This will be found translated in my "Book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night," vol. vii. p. 307, as an Appendix
to the Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac version of the story, from
which it differs in detail.

[FN#460] Called "Bekhit" in Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac
Editions.

[FN#461] Yehya ben Khalid (Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac),

[FN#462] "Shar" (Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac).

[FN#463] "Jelyaad" (Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac.)

[FN#464] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac, No. 63. See my "Book of
the Thousand Nights and One Night," vol. iv., p. 211.

[FN#465] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac, "Jaafar the Barmecide."

[FN#466] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac, "The Thief turned
Merchant and the other Thief," No. 88.

[FN#467] This story will be found translated in my "Book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night," vol. v., p. 345.

[FN#468] After this I introduce the Tale of the Husband and the
Parrot.

[FN#469] The Bulak Edition omits this story altogether.

[FN#470] After this I introduce How Abu Hasan brake wind.

[FN#471] Probably Wakksh al-Falak=Feral of the Wild.

[FN#472] This is the date of the Paris edition. There was an
earlier edition published at La Haye in 1743.

[FN#473] There are two other Oriental romances by Voltaire; viz.,
Babouc, and the Princess of Babylon.

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