The only argument left to you is to say, “My father gave me no education, just as my grandfather gave my father none, and I have followed in their footsteps,” but I tell you, the world in your late grandfather’s and father’s day was not as it is now. In their day, there were no steamboats or railway tracks to bring close far-off tracts and create new pacts, to connect the disconnected, and make accessible what was once protected. Then, one didn’t have to learn many languages. It could be said of anyone who knew a few words of Turkish—Welcome, my lord! How nice to see you, my lord!—that he’d make a fine interpreter at the imperial court, and of any who could write a hand worse than the hand with which I have penned this book (not the one you’re actually reading now, for whose typeface I take no responsibility3) that he was a skilled calligrapher who would make a fine secretary to a king’s council. Not now!
4.1.10
هذا الفارياق حين نوى السفر من الجزيرة الى بلاد الانكليز كان بعض الناس يقول له انك سائر الى بلاد لا تطلع عليها الشمس * وبعضهم يقول الى ارض لا ينبت فيه القمح ولا البقول * ولا يوجد فيها من الماكول الا اللحم والقلقاس * وبعضهم يقول انى اخاف عليك ان تفقد فيها رئتك لعدم الهوآ * وبعضهم يقول امعاك لعدم الاكل * وبعضهم صدرك او عضوا آخر غيره * فلما سار اليها وجد الشمس شمسا والهوآ هوآ * والمآ مآ * والرجال رجالا والنسآ نسآ * والديار ماهولة والمدن معمورة * والارض محروثة اريضة * كثيرة الصُوَى والاعلام * خضلة الغياض والرُبُض والاجام * ناضرة المروج * زاهية الحقول * غضة البقول * فلو انه سمع لاولئك الناس لفاته رؤية ذلك اجمع * فان خشيت ان تفوتك هناك لذة الاركيلة ولذة تكبيس الرجلين قبل الرقاد * فاعلم ان ما ترى هناك من العجائب ينسيك هذا النعيم * ويلهيك عمّا الفته فى مقامك الكريم *
When our friend the Fāriyāq made his decision to leave the island for England, someone told him, “You are going to a land over which the sun never rises”; another, “ . . . to a land where no wheat or green vegetables grow and the only foods to be had are meat and turnips”4; another, “I fear that you may lose your lungs there for lack of air”; another, “or your intestines for lack of food”; and another, “or your chest or some other part of your body.” When he got there, though, he found that the sun was the sun, the air air, water water, men men, and women women, that the land was populated and the cities well inhabited, the earth plowed and pleasing to the eye, well signposted and marked, resplendent with woods, mighty trees, and forests, green with meadows, proud in its fields, succulent in the green vegetables its soil yields; had he listened to those people, he would have missed seeing all of that. Thus, if you’re afraid that you would hanker for the pleasures of the water pipe or of having your legs massaged before going to sleep, know that the marvels you will see there will make you forget all such luxuries and distract you from everything to which, in your noble position in society, you have become accustomed.
4.1.11
كيف ترضى لنفسك ان تفارق هذه الدنيا ولم ترها وانت قادر على ذلك * وقد قال ابو الطيب المتنبى
| ولم ارَ فى عيوب الناس شيا | كنقص القادرين على التمام |
ام كيف تقتصر على معرفة ربع لغة ولا تتشوق الى علم ما يفكر فيه غيرك * فلعل تحت قبعته افكارا ومعانى لم تخطر بما تحت طربوشك * بحيث انك اذا استوعبتها تودّ لو انك عاصرت صاحبها وتشرفت بمعرفته وصنعت له مادبة فاخرة زينتها بصحاف الرز والبرغل * وكيف تبلغ من عمرك ثلثين سنة ولم تولّف شيا يفيد اهل بلادك * فما ارى بين يديك الا دفاتر بيع وشرآ وفناديق دخل وخرج * ورسائل فاسدة المعانى ركيكة الالفاظ تنظر فيها فى كل صباح ومسآ *
How can you allow yourself to leave this world without ever having seen it when you have the means to do so? Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Mutanabbī has said
And no failing have I seen among men
To equal the falling short of those who have means.
How can you limit yourself to knowing a quarter of a language5 and not yearn to know what others think? Under their hats may be ideas and thoughts that have never occurred to what’s under your tarbush—so much so that, did you but comprehend them, you’d wish you could have been their thinker’s contemporary, had the honor of his acquaintance, and held a splendid feast for him, decorated with sheaves of rice and wheat. How can you have reached the thirtieth year of your life without composing something of benefit to the people of your country? All I see before you are ledgers of sale and purchase, pages of outgoings and incomings, and letters full of corrupt phrases and lame expressions over which you pore morning and evening.
4.1.12
فاما اذا قصدت السفر لمجرد التفاخر فقط بان تقول مثلا فى مجلس زارك فيه اصحابك الكرمآ * واقرانك العظما * قد رايت مدينة كذا وشاهدت شوارعها النظيفة الواسعة وديارها الرحيبة ومراكبها الحسنة واسواقها البهيجة وخيلها المطهمة ونساها الرائعة وعساكرها الجرارة * واكلت فيها فى اليوم الاول كذا وشربت فى اليوم الثانى كذا * ثم ذهبنا بعد ذلك الى بعض الملاهى ثم الى احدى الملهيات * وبت معها على فراش وطى * وكان قبالة السرير مرآة كبيرة فى طول الفراش وعرضه فكنت ارى نفسى فيها كما كنت فى الفراش * ثم قمت فى الصباح وجاتنا