The Frontispiece
*
"Arabian Poetry", by W. A. Clouston, [1881],
The Frontispiece.
This is a lithographed reproduction, in facsimile (but only in black and white), of a page of a beautifully written and splendidly illuminated Arabic manuscript volume, in the possession of Mr. E. J. W. Gibb, whose translation of Mesh's Ode on Spring enriches the Appendix to the present work. The page contains the eleven first couplets of El-Bsr's celebrated Qasda (Poem, or rather, Hymn) in praise of Muhammad, of which an English translation, by Mr. J. W. Redhouse, will be found in pages 319-341. It is hardly necessary to state, what almost every English reader must already know, that Arabic, like most Oriental languages, is written from right to left; but it may be explained that the space in the centre of the page separates the first and second hemistichs of each verse. For example: the first couplet is contained in the "first" line, at the top of "each" column; the second couplet, in the "second" line of "each" column; and so on, reading across the central division. Mr. Redhouse has favoured me with a transliteration of this page (not every Arabist can correctly read any Arabic manuscript), and a translation of the titles and the customary invocation. The titles of the poem and of the first section, at the top of the page, are:
"qasdatun burdatun faslun fi ta'dli 'n-nafsi"
A Poem; a Mantle. A Section on the Justification of the Carnal Man.
Then follows the invocation which is invariably placed at the beginning of every Muslim composition, whether secular or religious:
"bi 'smi 'llhi 'r-rahmn 'r-rahmi"
In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the All-Compassionate.
Our old European authors in like manner always headed their
p. viii
writings with the sign of the cross, +. Thus, in the "King's Quair", by James I., of Scotland:
And forthwithal my pen in hand I took,
And made a +, and thus began my book.
Modern Christians do not so literally follow the scriptural injunction: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." But with Muslims it is no empty form.
The English reader will be interested in observing, in the following four first couplets of El-Bsr's Poem, in italic characters, the movement of the qasda rhyme:
1 e min tezekkuri jrmin bi dh-selemi
mezejta dem'an jer min muqletin bi demi
2 em hebeti 'r-rhu min tilq'i katzimetin
wa ewmadza 'l-barqu f 'tz-tzalm'i min idzami
3 fa m li 'ayney-ke in qulta 'kfuf hemet
wa m li qalbi-ke in qulta 'stefiq yehimi
4 e yahsibu 's-sabbu enna 'l-hubba munketimun
m beyna munsejimin min-hu wa mudztarimi
The two halves of the first distich, as above, rhyme; and the final syllable ("mi") of the second half of every succeeding distich, to the end of the poem, is the same as those of the hemistichs of the opening verse.
W. A. C.
"Arabian Poetry", by W. A. Clouston, [1881],
The Frontispiece.
This is a lithographed reproduction, in facsimile (but only in black and white), of a page of a beautifully written and splendidly illuminated Arabic manuscript volume, in the possession of Mr. E. J. W. Gibb, whose translation of Mesh's Ode on Spring enriches the Appendix to the present work. The page contains the eleven first couplets of El-Bsr's celebrated Qasda (Poem, or rather, Hymn) in praise of Muhammad, of which an English translation, by Mr. J. W. Redhouse, will be found in pages 319-341. It is hardly necessary to state, what almost every English reader must already know, that Arabic, like most Oriental languages, is written from right to left; but it may be explained that the space in the centre of the page separates the first and second hemistichs of each verse. For example: the first couplet is contained in the "first" line, at the top of "each" column; the second couplet, in the "second" line of "each" column; and so on, reading across the central division. Mr. Redhouse has favoured me with a transliteration of this page (not every Arabist can correctly read any Arabic manuscript), and a translation of the titles and the customary invocation. The titles of the poem and of the first section, at the top of the page, are:
"qasdatun burdatun faslun fi ta'dli 'n-nafsi"
A Poem; a Mantle. A Section on the Justification of the Carnal Man.
Then follows the invocation which is invariably placed at the beginning of every Muslim composition, whether secular or religious:
"bi 'smi 'llhi 'r-rahmn 'r-rahmi"
In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the All-Compassionate.
Our old European authors in like manner always headed their
p. viii
writings with the sign of the cross, +. Thus, in the "King's Quair", by James I., of Scotland:
And forthwithal my pen in hand I took,
And made a +, and thus began my book.
Modern Christians do not so literally follow the scriptural injunction: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." But with Muslims it is no empty form.
The English reader will be interested in observing, in the following four first couplets of El-Bsr's Poem, in italic characters, the movement of the qasda rhyme:
1 e min tezekkuri jrmin bi dh-selemi
mezejta dem'an jer min muqletin bi demi
2 em hebeti 'r-rhu min tilq'i katzimetin
wa ewmadza 'l-barqu f 'tz-tzalm'i min idzami
3 fa m li 'ayney-ke in qulta 'kfuf hemet
wa m li qalbi-ke in qulta 'stefiq yehimi
4 e yahsibu 's-sabbu enna 'l-hubba munketimun
m beyna munsejimin min-hu wa mudztarimi
The two halves of the first distich, as above, rhyme; and the final syllable ("mi") of the second half of every succeeding distich, to the end of the poem, is the same as those of the hemistichs of the opening verse.
W. A. C.
