Leg over Leg. Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq

      الفصل الاول

      ڡي اضرام اتون

      Chapter 1

      Firing Up a Furnace

      3.1.1

      او ما كفى بنى آدم ما هم فيه من الشقآ والعنآ * والجهد والبلآ * والمشقة والنصب * واللاوآ والتعب * والحرمان والنحس * والقنوط والتعس * يحبل بهم فى الفَرْث والوحم * ويولدون فى الاوجاع والالم * ويرضعون فى الضرر * ويفطمون فى الخطر * ويحبون فيعثرون * ويدرجون فيتدهورون * ويمشون فيكلّون * ويكدّون فيملّون * ويبطلون فيتضورون * اذا جاعوا خاروا ووَهَوا * واذا اكلوا اتخموا وبَجِروا * واذا ظمئوا ضووا * واذا شربوا غلثوا وغنثوا وخثروا * واذا ارقوا ذابوا قلقا وكمدا * واذا ناموا ذهب العمر منهم سدى * واذا هرموا ملّهم اهلهم واخوانهم * واذا اختُضروا حسّروهم تحسيرا ربما احانهم *

      Are they not enough, the troubles to which men are subject by way of misery and care, effort and wear, toil and disease, hardship and dis-ease, of deprivation and lucklessness, despair and unhappiness? Men are carried to nausea and craving, born in pain and suffering, nursed to their mothers’ detriment, weaned to their imperilment. They crawl only to stumble, climb only to tumble, walk only to lag, labor only to flag, find themselves unemployed only by hunger’s pangs to be destroyed. They languish and grow weak when they go without, suffer indigestion when they eat and grow stout. When they thirst, they lose weight, and when they drink, become sick as poisoned birds, gulp air, and nauseate. Lying awake at night, they waste away, worried and fraught, and sleeping, their allotted share of hours goes by and gains them naught. Old and feeble, they’re a burden to kith and kin, yet, should they die before their time, they cause them such grief as may do them in.

      3.1.2

      ثم هم بين ذلك فى تحصيل اسباب المعاش ساعون * وفى التظاهر باللباس والزينة معنَّون * والعزب منهم متهافت على امراة تكون له اهلا * وذو الاهل همّه بزوجه وتربية ولده طفلا وكهلا * فاذا مرضوا مرض * واذا حزنوا حزن وجرض * وويل له ان تكن زوجته بَزْرآ * او كانت عاقرا وَذْمآء * وراى لغيره من المتزوجين بنين ذوى طلعة ناضرة * وشمائل سارّة * فيقول فى نفسه انما لذة الدنيا البنون * وانى ميت بلا خلف واىّ منون *

      In the midst of all this, they must strive to obtain the means to earn their daily bread, while tormented by the need to make a show of dress and thread. The bachelor’s desperate to find a woman to call his own, the family man preoccupied with spouse and care of children, be they young or grown. When they fall ill, he does so too and when they mourn, he mourns and grieves in turn. Woe to him should his wife be overly fertile, but so too should she be barren and sterile, for then he sees other