Leg over Leg. Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq
curvaceousness, the trailing of her skirts over the ground as she walks and her sweeping by, her turning of her face aside as she proceeds and her walking with a swinging gait, her stepping out manfully and her walking proudly in her clothes, her ambling and her rambling, her stepping like a pouting pigeon and her rolling gait, the swinging of her mighty buttocks and her sashaying, the insinuating wriggling of her shoulders, her pretty waddling and the way she walks as though she were short, her shaking of her shoulders, her sprinting and her haughtiness (especially in walking), her taking short steps and her sinuosity, her ponderousness and her modesty of deportment, her hastening and her willowiness, her slowness of motion and her looseness of motion, her slow stepping and her skipping from foot to foot, her stretching out her hands as she paces and her walking with short steps, her swaying and her slowness, her walking proudly like a high priest of the Parsees and her sudden startings off the road, her sprightly running and her bending as she walks, her languishing gait and her strutting, her galloping and her striding out, her stalking and her swaying from side to side, her nonchalant sauntering and her walking with the limbs held close to the body, her swaggering, her walking finely and loosely and her staggering as though intoxicated, her walking with her thighs far apart kicking up her feet and her walking with a swing, her striding fast and her rushing, her skelping and her stepping quick, her tripping quickly along with short steps and three other ways of walking, each with a difference of one letter, and her walking nicely, her limping and a fourth way of walking with yet another letter changed35 and her walking making her steps close together, her gliding and her walking slowly, her shambling and a fifth way of walking, with further letters changed,36 her walking with tiny steps37 and her shuffling, her walking with conceit and her walking as though too weak to take long strides, her running with short steps and her walking fast, her disjointed walking and the moving of her buttocks and sides as she walks, the looseness of her joints as she walks and her walking with close steps, her walking with a rolling gait and her slowness and turning in walking, her walking fast with close steps and her close stepping, her walking with steps as close as closely written letters and her walking with steps as close as rapidly uttered words, her hopping like a shackled camel and her rolling walk, her walking with small hurried steps and her moving like a fast, well-gaited donkey, her easy pacing and her twisting and turning, her marching proudly (spelled two ways),38 her walking arrogantly and her tottering, her walking so fast that her shoulders shake and her cleavage rises and her moving like a wave, her walking as though falling onto a bed and her walking proudly like a horse, her walking like an effeminate man and her fast, agitated walking, her handsome way of walking and the same said another way,39 the beauty of her walk and her walking like a dove dragging its wings and tail on the ground, her walking like a pouting pigeon and her floppy walking, her walking with close, fast steps, moving her shoulders, her swashbuckling and stepping like a crow, her nubile grace, her hastening as she sways and her running with close steps, her lion-like pacing and her hurrying, her swaying as she walks and her walking slowly with long steps, her walking finely and the way she drags her skirts behind her, her active way of walking and her racing, her nimbleness and her knock-kneed running, her starting like a scared gazelle and and her leaping, and her jumping up and down in place and her facing forward and facing backward—and all the time her appetite for presents grows. I have composed two lines40 on the face veil that are, I believe, without precedent:
Only a fool would think to keep a girl
From love’s pursuit with nothing but a veil:
Not till the cloth’s been set to the wind
Is the ship in a state to sail.
2.2.5
فاما رجالها فان للترك سطوة على العرب وتجبرا * حتى ان العربى لا يحلّ له ان ينظر الى وجه تركى كما لا يحل له ان ينظر الى حُرَم غيره * واذا اتفق فى نوادر الدهر ان تركيا وعربيا تماشيا اخذ العربي بالسُنّة المفروضة * وهى ان يمشى عن يسار التركى محتشما خاشعا ناكسا متحاقرا متصاغرا متضائلا قافّا متقبضا متقبصا متقفصا متشمصا متحمصا متحرفصا مكتزّا متكاولا متازّحا متقرفعا متقرعفا مقرعفّا متقفّعا متكنبثا مقعنصرا متقوصرا مستزمرا معرنفطا مقرنفطا متجعثما متجعثنا مرزئمّا مرمئزّا مقمئنّا مكبئنّا متحنبلا متقاعسا مراعزا مكردَحا متضامّا متعصعصا متزازئا مقرنبعا مدنقِسا مطمرِسا مطرمسا متكرفسا منقفشا معقنفشا متحويا معرنزما متخشّلا آزِما لازبا كاتعا كانعا متشاجبا مُصَعْنبا مُجَرْبزا مجرمزّا متدخدخا * فاذا عطس التركى قال له العربى رحمك الله * واذا تنحنح قال حرسك الله * واذا مخط قال وقاك الله * واذا عثر عثر الآخر معه اجلالا له وقال نعشك الله لا نعشنا *
“As for the city’s men, the Turks boss the Arabs around like tyrants. The Arab is as much forbidden to look into the face of a Turk as he is into that of another man’s wife. If by some quirk of fate a Turk and an Arab should walk together, the Arab will follow the custom that has been imposed, namely of walking on the Turk’s left-hand side out of modesty and submission, head bent in self-derision, making himself as small and as thin as possible, shriveling, shrunken, unextended, drawing into himself, shrinking, cowering, tightly compressed, withered, making himself as short as possible, walking slowly and curled over himself, puckered, suckered, snookered, desiccated, tight as a miser, crouching, hugging himself to himself, making himself as small as possible, sucking in his sides and holding his buttocks tight, retracting and contracting, quaking and frozen in place, depressed, head and elbows pulled in, head bowed, aloof, dispirited, humiliated, regimented, intimidated, terrified, petrified, eyes downcast, recoiling and regressing, cringing, curled into a ball like a spider, debased [?],41 twisted, coiled upon himself like an old snake, bent over in abjection, drawing back, cleaving, constricting himself and restricting himself, pulling back, holding back, compressing, repressing, and constringeing himself. If the Turk sneezes, the Arab tells him, ‘God have mercy on you!’ If he clears his throat, he tells him, ‘God protect you!’ If he blows his nose, he tells him, ‘God guard you!’ And if he trips, the other trips along with him out of respect and says, ‘May God right you and not us!’
2.2.6
وقد سمعت ان الترك هنا عقدوا مجلس شورى استقر رايهم فيه لدى المذاكرة على ان يتخذوا لهم مركبا وطيئا من ظهور العرب فانهم جرّبوا سروج الخيل وبراذع الجمال واكفها واقتاب الابل وبواصرها وحُصُرها وسائر انواع المحامل من
| كِفْل | مركب للرجال * |
| وشِجار | مركب يتخذ للشيخ الكبير ومن منعته العلّة من الحركة * |
| وحِدْج | مركب للنسآ كالمحفّة * |
| واَجْلح | هودج ما له راس مرتفع * |
| وحَوْف | شى كالهودج وليس به * |
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وقَرّ
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