The Life and Times of Abu Tammam. Abu Bakr al-Suli

at insults.

      24.27

      Mukhallad said:

      So much fault was found with you,

      that fault saved you from satire.

      Do not thank me—

      thank the abundance of your afflictions.

      24.28

      Khiyār the Scribe said:

      I am not chased away by every dog that barks,

      nor am I scared by every fly that buzzes.

      The lions of the thicket know

      that, alone, I pounce on them, when they are a pride.

      How did lowly hyenas show up,

      when hyenas only hunt with lionesses?

      And he said:

      If I swatted a fly every time it passed,

      flies would indeed be important to me!

      24.29

      A Bedouin composed these verses on the former motif:

      Slaves evade being lampooned by chiefs:

      if you were to be lampooned, lampoon would be an ornament.

      No matter what mankind can be accused of

      worse could be said about you.

24.30

      Diʿbil said:

      I forced Satire upon a wretch,

      and when it tasted how vile he was it spat him out.

25.1

      Al-Buḥturī said:

      My task is to carve rhymes from where they belong,

      not that cattle understand me.

      If the virtues in which I trust

      are to be my sins, tell me, how then shall I apologize?⁴³

      He took the first verse from Abū Tammām:

      No crowd, whatever their number, shall grieve you,

      for most of them, nay, all of them are cattle.⁴⁴

      Al-Buḥturī also took his second verse from Abū Tammām:

      If it be my sin that my best pursuit is bad

      then bad judgment is my excuse.⁴⁵

      25.2

      And Abū Tammām, or both Abū Tammām and al-Buḥturī, borrowed this motif from the words of Abū Ḥanash al-Fazārī when he deserted Ḥudhayfah ibn Badr at the Battle of Habāʾah:

      How often have the virtues of a good stance

      been altered and counted as sins?

      This poem contains a beautiful passage:

      My stance reminded the women of Ḥamal ibn Badr

      and his staunch companion buffeted by the shifts of fortune.

      So I said to them, “In our opinion

      a lover may not give a beloved an excuse.”

      If my love were true or I were free,

      I would have died alongside Generosity in the Battle of the Well.

      My fault is evident, nothing can hide it from anyone who looks for it;

      my excuse has gone into hiding.

      I tried as hard as I could,

      but man’s cunning ploy died.

      There is no excuse that could be counted in my favor:

      repeated excuses are the actions of a dubious man.

      How often have the virtues of a good stance

      been altered and counted as sins?

      25.3

      Abū Muḥallim recited this verse:

      The hungry and thirsty man must ask for hospitality;

      he does not need to make the clouds thunder with rain.

      25.4

      Abū Tammām alluded to this motif:

      A troop like speartips, who took their rest on speartips,⁴⁶

      when the night turned pitch black,

      For a matter which they must begin,

      though they need not bring it to a close.

25.5

      This couplet seems to be copied⁴⁷ from Ibn Abī ….⁴⁸ Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā Thaʿlab recited it to us:

      A man of war: he rushed in and put himself to the test.