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A Modern (Muḥdath) Ghazal Epigram by Abū Nuwās
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37 37 A Muḥdath (“Modern”) Ghazal Epigram by Abū Nuwās ِب �ار ْ�تأ � ن �ي ��ب �� ً او� ْ ج � � َ �ش��� ُ ب � ُ �دْن �ي �� ٍ م � ت � أ ��م� ي � � �ف � � ُ ت �ر�ص ��ب� أ � ً ار�م �ق � � �ا ي �� ِب ��اّن � ُ ع �ب �� َ د ْ رو�ل� � ا م � ِ ط �� � ل��ي � ف � � � ٍ س�� �ج �ر ن� ن �م� َ ّ ر ُ ّ د��ل� � ا ي � � �ر ْ�ذ �ي � ف � � � ي � � ك � � �ْ ب �ي �� yā qamaran ʾabṣartu fī maʾtamin yandubu shajwan bayna ʾatrābī yabkī fa-yadhrī d-durra min narjisin fa-yalṭimu l-warda bi-ʿunnābī139 Meter (al-sarīʿ): XXSL LXXL LSL / XXSL LXXL LL. Al-Ḥasan ibn Hāniʾ, known as Abū Nuwās (ca. 140/755–ca. 198/813), whose mother was Persian and whose father’s lineage, possibly Arab, is uncertain , lived in Kufa, Basra, and the new city of Baghdad.140 He is reckoned among the greatest and most versatile of Arabic poets. The poem is about a girlfriend of the poet who himself was fonder of boys than girls. It is an exercise in metaphor (istiʿārah), not of the “old” kind (genitive metaphor, as “the reins of the morning are held by the hand of the north wind”) but a word standing for another: moon for pretty girl, pearls for tears, daffodils for eyes, roses for cheeks, jujube fruits for fingers dyed with henna. The poet poses as a lover dying from love but he is not serious, as shown by the cynical and paradoxical wish in the “punch line”: a true lover would not wish the loved ones of his beloved to die; and if he were not loved by the girl, he would wish death upon himself. A full moon at a funeral I saw lamenting grievously among its friends. It wept and scattered pearls from daffodils while slapping roses with the jujube fruits. I said, “Don’t weep for someone dead and gone, weep, rather, for a slain one at your door!” The funeral exposed it, grudgingly, to me, despite porter and chamberlains. Ah, may its loved ones always die, that I could always see it too! ...
