The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume X Part 17

- | - | - | U U - U - | U U - U - | U U - - |

Taken isolated, on the other hand, the second Bayt might be of the metre Rajaz, whose first 'Aruz Mustaf'ilun has two Azrub: one equal to the Aruz, the other Maf'ulun as above, but here subst.i.tuted for Mustaf'il after applying the 'Illah Kat' (see p 247) to Mustaf'ilun. If this were the metre of the poem throughout the scheme with the licences peculiar to the Rajaz would be:

U U | U U | U U | - - U U | - - U - | - - U - |

U U | U U | U | - - U - | - - U - | - - - |

The pith of Al-Hariri's a.s.sembly is that the knight errant not to say the arrant wight of the Romance, Abu Sayd of Saruj accuses before the Wali of Baghdad his pretended pupil, in reality his son, to have appropriated a poem of his by lopping off two feet of every Bayt. If this is done in the quoted lines, they read:

- - U - | - - U - | Ya khatiba 'l-dunya 'l-dandy.

U U - U | U U - U - | Yati innaha sharaku 'l-rada

- - U - | - - U - | Darun mata ma azhakat,

- - U - | - - U - | Fi yaumiha abkat ghada,

with a different rhyme and of a different variation of metre. The amputated piece belongs to the fourth Zarb of the third 'Aruz of Kamil, and its second couplet tallies with the second subdivision of the second cla.s.s of Rajaz.

The Rajaz, an iambic metre pure and simple, is the most popular, because the easiest, in which even the Prophet was caught napping sometimes, at the dangerous risk of following the perilous leadership of Imru 'l-Kays. It is the metre of improvisation, of ditties, and of numerous didactic poems. In the latter case, when the composition is called Urjuzah, the two lines of every Bayt rhyme, and each Bayt has a rhyme of its own. This is the form in which, for instance, Ibn Malik's Alfiyah is written, as well as the remarkable grammatical work of the modern native scholar, Nasif al-Yaziji, of which a notice will be found in Chenery's Introduction to his Translation of Al-Hariri.

While the Hazaj and Rajaz connect the third circle with the first and second, the Ramal forms the link between the third and fourth Dairah. Its measure Fa'ilatun (- U - -) and the reversal of it, Maf'ulatu (- - - U), affect the trochaic rhythm, as opposed to the iambic of the two first-named metres. The iambic movement has a ring of gladness about it, the trochaic a wail of sadness: the former resembles a nimble pedestrian, striding apace with an elastic step and a cheerful heart; the latter is like a man toiling along on the desert path, where his foot is ever and anon sliding back in the burning sand (Raml, whence probably the name of the metre). Both combined in regular alternation, impart an agitated character to the verse, admirably fit to express the conflicting emotions of a pa.s.sion stirred mind.

Examples of these more or less plaintive and pathetic metres are numerous in the Tale of Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter, which, being throughout a story of love, as has been noted, vol.

v. 33, abounds in verse, and, in particular, contains ten out of the thirty two instances of Ramal occurring in The Nights. We quote:

Ramal, first Zarb of the first 'Aruz (Mac. N. ii. 361):

- U - - | U U - - | - U - | Inna li 'l-bulbuli sautan fi 'l-sahar

- U - - | U U - - | - U - | Ashghala 'l-ashika 'an husni 'l-water

The Bulbul's note, whenas dawn is nigh * Tells the lover from strains of strings to fly (vol. v. 48).

Sari', second Zarb of the first 'Aruz (Mac. N. ii. 359):

U - U - | - - U - | - U - | Wa fakhitin kad kala fi nauhihi

- - U - | - - U - | - U - | Ya Daiman shukran 'ala balwati

I heard a ringdove chanting soft and plaintively, * "I thank Thee, O Eternal for this misery" (vol. v. 47).

Khafif, full or perfect form (sahih), both in Zarb and 'Aruz (Mac. N. ii. 356):

- U - - | U - U - | - U - - | Ya li-man ashtaki 'l-gharama 'llazi bi

U U - - | U - U - | - U - - | Wa shujuni wa furkati 'an habibi

O to whom now of my desire complaining sore shall I * Bewail my parting from my fere compelled thus to fly (vol. v. 44).

Mujta.s.s, the only 'Aruz (majzuah sahihah, i.e. shortened by one foot and perfect) with equal Zarb (Mac. N. ii. 367):

- - U - | U U - - | Ruddu 'alayya habibi

- - U - | - U - - | La hajatan li bi-malin

To me restore my dear * I want not wealth untold (vol. v. 55).

As an instance of the Munsarih, I give the second occurring in The Nights, because it affords me an opportunity to show the student how useful a knowledge of the laws of Prosody frequently proves for ascertaining the correct reading of a text. Mac. N. i.

33 we find the line:

- U U - | - U U - | - U U - | Arba'atun ma 'jtama'at kattu iza.

This would be Rajaz with the licence Mufta'ilun for Mustaf'ilun.

But the following lines of the fragment evince, that the metre is Munsarih; hence, a clerical error must lurk somewhere in the second foot. In fact, on page 833 of the same volume, we find the piece repeated, and here the first couplet reads

- U U - | - U - U | - U U - | Arba'atun ma 'jtama'na kattu siwa

U - U - | - U - U | - U U - | Ala aza mujhati wa safki dami

Four things which ne'er conjoin unless it be * To storm my vitals and to shed my blood (vol. iii. 237).

The Mutakarib, the last of the metres employed in The Nights, has gained a truly historical importance by the part which it plays in Persian literature. In the form of trimetrical double-lines, with a several rhyme for each couplet, it has become the "Nibelungen"-stanza of the Persian epos: Firdausi's immortal "Book of Kings" and Nizami's Iskander-namah are written in it, not to mention a host of Masnawis in which Sufic mysticism combats Mohammedan orthodoxy. On account of its warlike and heroical character, therefore, I choose for an example the knightly Jamrakan's challenge to the single fight in which he conquers his scarcely less valiant adversary Kaurajan, Mac. N. iii. 296:

U - - | U - U | U - - | U - - | Ana 'l-Jamrakanu kawiyyn 'l-janani

U - - | U - U | U - - | U - - | Jami'u 'l-fawarisi takhsha kitali.

Here the third syllable of the second foot in each line is shortened by licence, and the final Kasrah of the first line, standing in pause, is long, the metre being the full form of the Mutakarib as exhibited p. 246, iii. E. 1. If we suppress the Kasrah of al-Janani, which is also allowable in pause, and make the second line to rhyme with the first, saying, for instance:

U - - | U - U | U - - | U - Ana 'l-Jamrakanu kawiyyu 'l-janan

U - - | U - - | U - - | U - La-yaksha kitali shija'u 'l-zaman,

we obtain the powerful and melodious metre in which the Shahnamah sings of Rustam's lofty deeds, of the tender love of Rudabah and the tragic downfall of Siyawush

Shall I confess that in writing the foregoing pages it has been my ambition to become a conqueror, in a modest way, myself: to conquer, I mean, the prejudice frequently entertained, and shared even by my accomplished countryman, Ruckert, that Arabic Prosody is a clumsy and repulsive doctrine. I have tried to show that it springs naturally from the character of the language, and, intimately connected, as it is, with the grammatical system of the Arabs, it appears to me quite worthy of the ac.u.men of a people, to whom, amongst other things, we owe the invention of Algebra, the stepping-stone of our whole modern system of Mathematics I cannot refrain, therefore, from concluding with a little anecdote anent al-Khalil, which Ibn Khallikan tells in the following words. His son went one day into the room where his father was, and on finding him scanning a piece of poetry by the rules of Prosody he ran out and told the people that his father had lost his wits. They went in immediately and related to al-Khalil what they had heard, on which he addressed his son in these terms:

"Had you known what I was saying, you would have excused me, and had you known what you said, I should have blamed you But you did not understand me, so you blamed me, and I knew that you were ignorant, so I pardoned you."

L'Envoi.

Here end, to my sorrow, the labours of a quarter-century, and here I must perforce say with the "poets' Poet,"