Leg over Leg. Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq

would, I swear, make the Baptist salivate and excite a hermit?’ I said, ‘They’re just words,’ to which she replied, ‘Every war begins with words.’ ‘Would you have me abandon this craft and its obsession, this all-consuming profession?’ I asked. ‘So long as you don’t visualize, while describing, a specific person, I have no objection,’ she answered. I responded, ‘If I don’t visualize a person, my mind will remain a blank.’ ‘In that case,’ she said, ‘it’s a sin.’ ‘And how,’ I asked, ‘may I expiate it?’ ‘By visualizing only me and no one else,’ she replied. ‘But you,’ I responded, ‘are devoid of some of the characteristics that have to be mentioned,’ to which she responded, ‘If a man truly loves his wife, he will find in her everything that is fair and see in each hair of hers a beautiful woman. By the same token, if he loves some other woman, he will, for her sake, love her country, its weather, its water, and the language, customs, and manners of its people.’ ‘Aren’t women the same,’ I asked, ‘when they love a man?’ ‘They’re worse,’ she answered, ‘because they have larger reserves of love and passion.’ ‘And why is that?’ I asked. ‘Because,’ she said, ‘men spend time on things that do not concern them. Thus you’ll find this one seeking position, that one power, and a third delving into religions and all that is obscure, be it profane or divine. Women pay no attention to any of that.’ ‘Would that you might busy yourself with the same concerns as men!’ I said. ‘Would that I had,’ she rejoined, ‘two hearts to devote to these concerns of ours.’³⁰ ‘Do you, then,’ I asked, ‘see in me everything that is good, as you claim?’ ‘I hold you in high regard,’ she said. ‘In that case,’ said I, ‘let’s get back to saying good-bye—or maybe not: let us, in fact, get back to the matter at hand, for I’d like to settle it before I depart; otherwise, it will preoccupy me throughout my journey and may spoil my work for those I go to serve. If that happens, I shall pin the blame on you and on women in general.’

      4.2.9

      قالت اعلم ان المراة تعلم من نفسها انها زينة هذا الكون * كما ان جميع ما فيه انما خلق لزينتها لا لزينة الرجل * لا لكونه مستغنيا عنها بذاته او لكونها هى مفتقرة اليها لتحلو بها فى عين الناظر واذن السامع * بل لعدم جدارة الرجل بها * فان الزينة نوع من الاخذ والتلقّى والاستيعاب والزيادة وهى احوال انسبُ بامراة منها بالرجل * وبنآء على هذا اى على ان جميع ما فى الكون خُلِق لها بعضه بالتخصيص وبعضه بالتفضيل والايثار * كان من بعض اعتقادها ان نوع الرجل ايضا مخلوق لها * لا بمعنى انها تكون زوجة لجميع الرجال فان ذلك محال من وجهين * احدهما انها لا تطيق ذلك لان سرّية ذلك اليهودى (على ما ذكر فى الفصل التاسع عشر من سفر القضاة) لم تطق اهل قرية واحدة (هى جبعة) على قلتهم ليلة واحدة * بل ماتت فى الصباح وسيدها يحسبها نائمة * وهذه الحكاية ذُكِرت رَدْعًا للنسآ * والثانى انه اذا ثبت لامراة حق فى حكر الرجال والاستدباد بهم ثبت الحق الباقى * ولكن بمعنى انها اهل لان تعاشر جميع الرجال وتتعرف ما عندهم * فتتلهَّى من واحد بتمليقة ومن آخر باطرآءة ومن غيره بمغازلة ومن آخر بمطارحة وما اشبه ذلك * مما لا يمنعها من محبة زوجها والكلف به * لا بل –

      “‘You should know,’ she said, ‘that women are aware without having to be told that they are the adornment of this universe, and similarly that everything in it was created to be an adornment for women, not men; not because men are innately in no need of such adornment or because women are in need of it in order to look and sound attractive to the eyes of the beholder and the ears of the listener, but because men are not suited to it. Adornment is something one takes, receives, and assimilates and which then becomes an embellishment—modes more appropriate to women than to men. Based on this—which is to say, on the fact that everything in the universe was created for women, in part by design and in part through preference and predilection³¹—one of her beliefs is that the male sex too was created for her, albeit not in the sense that she should be wife to all men, for that would be an impossibility, from two perspectives. One is that no woman could survive such a thing, for the concubine of that certain Jew mentioned in Judges, chapter 19³² could not survive the men of a single village (Gibeah), few though they were, for a single night; on the contrary, she died the next morning and her master believed she was asleep; the story is mentioned there as a caution to women. The other is that, if women’s right to the exclusive possession and arbitrary disposal of men is admitted, then their right to everything else must be admitted too—though only in the sense that they’re qualified to keep company with all men and be acquainted with what they are up to. Thus they may entertain from one a word of flattery, from another a word of praise, from some other courtship, from yet another conversation, and so on, none of which need stand in the way of her feeling love and affection for her husband. Nay, on the contrary . . .’”

      4.2.10

      قال فقلت اتمّى هذه اللابليّة فانى اراها ترجمة لداهية من دواهى النسآ وعنوانا على مكيدة من مكايدهن * فضحكت وقالت ربّما دلّك على الراى الظنون * غير انى اخشى من ان تاخذك لبيانها شفشفة ورعدة فتتاخر عن السفر * او ان تظن ان هذا دابى معك * معاذ الله * انى لم اخُنْك بضِمْد^١ ولا بغيره * وانما علمت ما علمت من النسآ لان النسآ لا يكتم بعضهن عن بعض شيا من امور العشق واحوال الرجال * قلت اَوْجِزى فقد قلقت وفرقت وعرقت *

      ١ ١٨٥٥: بضَمْد.

      The Fāriyāq continued, “At this I said, ‘Go straight to the end of this “nay-on-the-contrary”—as far as I can see it’s just the preface to another example of the cunning ways of women and the introduction to another of their wiles.’ She laughed and said, ‘Likely your misgivings about women make you say so. Nevertheless, I’m afraid that fear and trembling will overtake you as you try to understand it and you’ll find yourself unable to leave on time, or will suppose that that’s how I conduct myself where you are concerned. God forbid! Never have I betrayed you, with friend or with foe. Everything I know I have learned from other women, for women hide nothing from one another where love and the ways of men are concerned.’ ‘Be brief, then,’ said I, ‘for I’m disquieted and frightened, and my perspiration level’s heightened.’

      4.2.11

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