Sol 6.1

  1. O people of Jayrun, has your evening storyteller—

    when the stars of Aries rise—

  2. witty tales like gardens visited early

    by the Pleiades' rain, from a pouring cloud,

  3. or like necklaces strung with beads [reading uncertain] and

    pearls, and the embroidery of cloaks and canopies,

  4. whose singing delights the listener

    in the light thaqil and ramal rhythms?

  5. I was at my house's door before dawn,

    waiting for the servant to saddle my mount.

  6. My night grew long because some business arose;

    I attended to it early, before the stars declined.

  7. A black man passed me in the darkness, like an

    elephant, broad-shouldered and muscular,

  8. protruding-toothed, with a nostril like the opening of an ov-

    -en, and a bloodshot eye like flames,

  9. and a dangling lip like a mill's hopper [reading uncertain],

    over crooked tusks like knives,

  10. split-heeled, chafed at shackle and

    foot, long-shanked, dressed in rags.

  11. The wind brought me a fragrance from him,

    like freshly gathered garden flowers in soaking dew:

  12. musk and aged Qafsiyah wine,

    mingled with ben-oil and pervasive ambergris.

  13. I said, ‘Such are not, when

    drinking companions depart, the smells of lowlifes!

  14. A black man coming from the furnace, with

    the fragrance of a tipsy prince in undress!

  15. By the Lord of heaven, this is stranger than

    a wild ass in the wilderness [unclear epithet].

  16. Bring him back, Nasr, so I may question him;

    his business is a puzzle among puzzles.’

  17. He spoke, fearing we would miss our business:

    ‘This is no very great trouble.’

  18. I said, ‘Avoiding idle matters, you of deficient

    resolve, is sheer backwardness and laziness.

  19. Catch him before he escapes you

    as he makes his way among these roads.’

  20. He turned away, feigning inattention, and went,

    marveling at his own good sense and my foolishness.

  21. He called after him, ‘Slow down,

    black man! I have no strength for running.

  22. Go back to that fool, and if

    he talks at length [reading uncertain], do not linger.

  23. When questioned, answer sparingly

    in words; be silent if you are not asked.’

  24. He himself would better avoid idle matters, if only

    he were free of frivolity and foolish talk.

  25. The man hurried back toward me, stumbling in

    a wrap of cloth infested with fleas and lice.

  26. He had oozed pre-ejaculate, and it dripped from

    his member onto the hem [reading uncertain], like a trickle.

  27. Thinking me easy prey, he displayed to me

    a cock like a camel's knee [reading uncertain],

  28. black, encircled by a ring of

    yellow shit, with which it outshone anklets.

  29. He said, ‘You shall have dirhams; let me thrust it

    into you. If you have not pissed, piss!

  30. Many a time it has loosened the bowels of someone

    unable to bear the like of it.

  31. And yet it is well-mannered,

    one of those trained, docile cocks.

  32. Many a time, by God, I have served with it the

    kings behind curtains and canopies.

  33. I used to visit them upon beds of

    silk, without a lapse or stumble,

  34. for it is my trade [reading uncertain], and the trade of my fore-

    -fathers long ago, in the earliest ages.

  35. Under Jewish rule my fee for it

    increased beyond that of former regimes,

  36. until I even split their pricks open

    and kept them supple morning and evening.

  37. Look at it: if you see anything

    like it, do not call me Abu al-Ju'al.

  38. Take a shaft whose sheaths are anuses,

    never abused for an hour, never humbled.’

  39. I said, ‘May I never lack your kindness! You have

    offered what was never cheaply offered,

  40. and freely bestowed, without being asked,

    a treasure not sold by the lot.

  41. But by Him who prolongs your

    life and grants your utmost hope,

  42. no cock has ever split my arse,

    nor is choosing cocks my occupation.

  43. I did not summon you for this; seek for your mem-

    -ber someone who enjoys it instead of me.

  44. Come, tell me, by God, from where

    you came, and spare me these excuses.’

  45. He said, ‘I spent the night with your governor,

    this Abu al-Fadl Yusuf ibn Ali.

  46. His perfume clung to me, and to him clung

    my rank odor, sharp as onions.

  47. I left him at daybreak bleary-eyed,

    attending to neither service nor business.’

  48. I said, ‘You exaggerate and make accusations against

    a noble elder descended from noble stock.

  49. His father is generous, his grandfather a king

    called Hunayn, and his uncle al-Samli.

  50. Perhaps this is someone else; describe him, for

    someone like me is not deceived by these tricks.

  51. If you are truthful, you will escape, and I will

    turn blame and censure upon him.

  52. If you lie, I will slap you with my

    sandal. If you have something to say, say it.’

  53. He said, ‘Master, you hurried to a stratagem,

    a feeble one; man was made of haste.

  54. The man with whom I spent the night is middle-aged,

    short of elderly, beyond mature.

  55. His mouth stinks, and beneath his tailbone

    a spring spits pus amid a thicket.

  56. Swollen-testicled, slack of perineum, torn at the

    anus, bearded, inflamed in his lower parts.

  57. The bleeding of his hemorrhoids, when mixed

    with shit, is like clarified butter mixed with honey.

  58. When I mount him, his breath is

    sharper than a sword in a hero's hand:

  59. it strikes down the birds of heaven in the

    highest sky, and weakens the mountain passes.

  60. He stinks worse than anything named when

    a maker of comparisons exaggerates his description.

  61. Yet he is forever fond,

    to my ill fortune, of biting and kissing.

  62. Yes, and at his arse's opening is a white patch;

    I spend my night in fear of it.

  63. I fear his vitiligo will infect my cock,

    making me a spectacle among spectacles:

  64. black as night, with between his legs

    a pillar of dawn parting the dusk.’

  65. I said, ‘Those are his features indeed; you have

    filled my heart with concern for that man.’

  66. He said, ‘Now, if you are concerned about him,

    he is at the height of delight.

  67. His life is pleasant; he has obtained of

    pleasure what he never previously obtained or attained.

  68. Sometimes he lies spread like a bride,

    sometimes he is like a stallion among camels.

  69. He combines both pleasures, delighted:

    sometimes in his arse, sometimes in his front.

  70. He is a seasoned woman, fearing no pain of

    pregnancy—barren, fearing no conception.

  71. And you, son of shit, are concerned

    about him, while he is unconcerned.’

  72. I said, ‘Tell me, how do you know him?’

    He said, ‘Spare me these restraints.

  73. I was a hired hand at a press

    in Tyre, belonging to al-Bajal's secretary.

  74. I would spend the daylight out beyond

    the premises [reading uncertain], after leaving my work.

  75. One day I slept, having been, from staying awake at

    night, battered like a drunken drinker.

  76. The wind blew, uncovering me without my

    noticing; the covering flew off my privates.

  77. By ill fortune and the fate that

    was decreed, he rode by in a clamorous procession,

  78. surrounded by yellow banners, horses and foot

    soldiers, bright sword blades and spears,

  79. upon a bay horse [unclear epithet], like a rock

    of solid stone cut from a mountain summit.

  80. It was neither protruding-toothed nor hoarse, nor

    hollow-bellied and lean-flanked, nor [unclear defect].

  81. He was before the ranks, preceded by

    bare-necked, hollow-eyed horses,

  82. led alongside, as though they were wol-

    -ves at a trot, or slender spears.

  83. He happened to turn and saw

    my shirt's skirt torn open at the front.

  84. He stared hard at me, as

    a hungry wolf stares at a lamb.

  85. By your life, my

    master, that night was not over before messengers summoned me.

  86. I came to him afraid, as a

    sparrow is forced to enter upon a monitor lizard.

  87. I was terrified when I saw his beard,

    and nearly shat myself from sheer terror.

  88. He thought I was shy before him, so he began

    putting me at ease with jokes and flirtation.

  89. He said, “This shyness—may my father ransom

    you—is the herald of shrinking back and failure.

  90. Cast off the awe that harms me,

    and withdraw entirely from fear.

  91. If you honor me to raise

    my standing, some humiliation benefits me more.

  92. Pluck my moustache, slap my nape, and do not

    consider my power or my servants,

  93. my slaves, my bedding,

    my perfume, my ingenuity, or my robes.

  94. If slapping afflicts my upper half,

    thrusting may afterward delight my lower half.

  95. After joking, may my father ransom you,

    there is no reserve or embarrassment about the head.”

  96. He kept diligently stiffening my plumb-

    -line, and swaggering slowly before me.

  97. When I let it hang like a donkey's, he began

    lifting his coverings from his rump.

  98. He fell face and brow downward, having

    moistened the area around his testicles.

  99. I pierced him once with a true shaft,

    solid-jointed and straight.

  100. He said, “You have hurt the inside of my arse!”

    and kept crying out in woe and bereavement.

  101. His belly gurgled; many a time

    I had feared the like, but paid no heed.

  102. Then he flung a turd at me that struck

    my nose, and I struggled with it [unclear phrase].

  103. I said, “Master, my hope,

    I think this arse belongs to Banu Thu'al.”

  104. He said, “You erred: you drew my blood!”

    I said, “No, by God, it did not flow.

  105. How does scarlet gore, may I ransom you, compare with

    a smeared stool, streaked like yellow dye?

  106. Why did you not defecate—may you have no father—or

    tighten your rotten arse's opening?”

  107. He said, “When you began pounding me

    in my arse with a spear, my lower half could not hold firm.

  108. Didn't you know that my arse's excre-

    -ment is my weapon in every contest?

  109. Take ebony that I have adorned with gold:

    adornment suits it better than being bare.

  110. Do not blame me: what can I do with

    an arse fiercely itching and burning?

  111. Pleasure robs it of shame, so re-

    -laxed are the edges of its rotten passage.

  112. Yes, and you surprised me with a slanting thrust

    that stunned me and passed through the seat of ailments.

  113. You surprised my heart, leaving no chance for caution in

    my affairs, with thrusting like a blazing lightning flash.

  114. A cock plunged into my shit, wild with recklessness

    beyond the bounds of madness and derangement.

  115. Master, what is its name?” I said, “Abu al-

    Aswad is its name—not al-Du'ali.”

  116. He said, “How delightful is Abu al-Aswad, the as-

    -cetic who shuns us for a turd from me!

  117. Has anything else troubled him? Water has been made

    a cleanser for everyone who washes.

  118. Go, then return afterward to slake me,

    after my sleep, with a second draught upon the first.

  119. Fear nothing afterward.” He called a ser-

    -vant in a short robe, busily working [reading uncertain].

  120. That servant said, “[Unclear opening]—

    —like this; wash yourself, and do not worry.

  121. This is our master's custom,

    inherited from his father, uninterrupted.”

  122. I remained in the bedding store for

    days, left alone in the guise of a prisoner,

  123. until my spear bent, and he could see,

    at his leisure, weariness and slackness.

  124. Then he sang, with the cock in his hand,

    now light after its unruliness and heaviness:

  125. “O Hind's abode at al-Khayf in Malal,

    hail, darkened campsite and ruined dwelling!”

  126. He said, “Look: in Damascus I have a brother

    over endowments, revenue, and estates—yes.

  127. I know him for his love of black men,

    and he will not change his mind.

  128. Take my letter and travel to him; do not

    leave out any speech never yet uttered.

  129. Say: ‘Through the night a swift she-camel bore me,

    leading the foremost mature Mahri camels.

  130. She stretches out headstrong when the mounts tire,

    until she eases off in delight.

  131. I plunge into the hinterlands in the darkness of

    night, and shelter at the ibexes' watering places.

  132. I have no intercessor with you except

    a cock that loosened Abu Sahl's bowels.’

  133. He will encounter it and be-

    -stow upon it, when it arrives, a ‘Come hither!’

  134. At his house it will become dearer than

    family, close relatives, and servants.”

  135. I came to him, trusting the words of Abu

    Sahl—and whoever hears his wishes imagines them true.

  136. But we gained nothing except sleeplessness

    that blinded me, and exhausting thrusts that sapped my strength.

  137. That was the beginning of my acquaintance

    with him. Enough: cut it short, do not continue.

  138. Our day has passed without work

    from which wages or hope might be expected.

  139. I thought I had been summoned for fucking, but did not

    know I had been summoned to disputation.’

  140. I said, ‘Go in good company: you have

    told me something grave about him.’

  141. He went hurrying, as though drunk

    from exhausting sleeplessness and weariness,

  142. saying as he walked, while the

    dawn brightened, ‘Many a confident man has been shamed!

  143. It was Iblis's sham marriage,

    without witnesses or a guardian's presence.

  144. May God bless neither of them; they have

    done what no religion permits.’

  145. I returned, seeking refuge in God from

    evil and every vile predicament.

  146. Praise to the giver of safety from

    a wound treated with such wicks.

Sol 6.1