إلى رحمة الله تعالى كما في الغالب أنّ الفقير يوم يسعد يموت وما أحسن ما قال الشاعر [متقارب]
| إِذا تَمَّ شَيءٌ بَدا نقْصُهُ | تَوَقَّعْ١ زَوالًا إذا قِيلَ تَمْ |
١ بي: تَوفّي.
Indeed, people used to envy his father for having a son so strong and so smart and such an expert at banging the drum and playing the zummārah. Now, his father had acquired, in the course of his life, a lame donkey, two goats, a share in the ox that turned the waterwheel, half a cow, ten hens with their rooster, four bushels of bran, and two quarterns of barley. He also owned about four hundred dung cakes and a bin in which he stored chicken droppings during the winter, and he had a broken water jug, a striped earthenware water butt, a besom to sweep the threshing floor, and a dog to guard the house. Once he had achieved this state of luxury, he died and passed into the mercy of the Almighty, in keeping with the common rule that the day a poor man gets rich, he dies—a point well made by the poet12 who said:
When a thing’s complete, decline sets in.
Expect extinction when men say, “Done!”
١١،١٠
فكفّنه ولده أبو شادوف في رداء من محر الكتّان ودفنه في تربة تعرف بتربة ابن خاروق بسنط كفر١ شمرطاطي وقيل بكفر تلّ فندروك وقد يجمع بين القولين فيقال مات في كفر شمرطاطي ودفن في كفر تلّ فندروك وقبره الآن يعرف بقبر أبو جاروف تزوره الفلّاحون ويلعبون بجانبه الكورة وربّما تبول عليها البهائم في بعض الأوقات وقد رثاه بعض شعراء الأرياف بأبيات فقال [وافر]
١ بي: سنط بكفر.
So his son Abū Shādūf wrapped him in a cloak of combed linen and buried him in a grave known as “the grave of Ibn Kharūf” at the acacia trees of Kafr Shammirṭāṭī, or, as some say, at Kafr Tall Fandarūk; but the two statements may be combined, in which case one would say, “He died in Kafr Shammirṭāṭī and was buried in Kafr Tall Fandarūk.” His grave is now known as “the grave of Abū Jārūf,” and the peasants visit it and play ball next to it, and the animals urinate on it from time to time. A country poet elegized him in the following lines:
١،١١،١٠
| أَلَا كُونُوا ٱسْعِفُونِي يَا جَمَاعَهْ | وَإِبْكُوا يَا مُشَاهْ فِي كُلِّ سَاعَهْ |
| أَبُو جَارُوفُ وَلَّى ٱْليَوْمَ عَنَّا | وَخَلَّى ٱلْعَنْزَ وَٱلْبَقْرَهْ بِتَاعَهْ |
| وَخَلَّى بَنْتَ عَمُّو أُمَّ فَلْحَسْ | عَلَيِهِ ٱلْيَوْمَ تَبْكِي وَسْطَ قَاعَهْ |
| وَٱبُو شَادُوفْ يُعَيِّطْ مَلْوَ رَاسُو | أَبُويَا مَاتْ وَعُدْنَا فِي بَشَاعَهْ |
| وَرَاحْ مَنْ كَانَ شَيْخَ ٱلْكَفْرِ يُحْكُمْ | عَلَى الجِدْعَانْ وَدَوْلِيكَ ٱلرِّبَاعَهْ |
Ah come, good people, to my aid,
And weep, mushāh, time and again!
Abū Jārūf today away from us has turned,
While his goat and cow remain.
He’s left his father’s brother’s daughter, Umm Falḥas,13
In an empty chamber today to weep and complain,
And Abū Shādūf bawls fit to burst,
“My father’s dead and it’s all gone awful again!”
Gone is the hamlet’s shaykh who ruled
O’er the brave lads and all those men!
٢،١١،١٠
| وَلَمَّا كَانَ يَرْكَبْ يَوْمَ غَارَهْ | عَلَى كَلْبُهْ وَيَدَّلِّعْ دِلَاعَهْ |
| وَيَلْبِسْ لِبْدَتُو مِنْ فَوْقِ رَاسُو | وَدَقْنُو بَارِدَهْ فِيهَا سَقَاعَهْ |
| وَحَوْلُو جَرْوِ إِبْنِ خَرَا ٱنْتَ فَلْحَسْ | وَمُشَاةُ ٱلْكَفْرِ مَا مِنْهُمْ نَجَاعَهْ |
| تَقُولْ رَيِّسْ عَلَى جَوْقِ ٱلْمَغَانِي | أَوِ ٱلْخَلْبُوصُ جَا يَشْفَعْ شَفَاعَهْ |
| وَجِيصُو رَاحَ يَا ٱلله ارحم عِضَامُو | وَبَشْبِشْ طُوبَتُو فِي كُلِّ سَاعَهْ |
And when, to go raiding, he used to mount
His dog and primp and preen,
And put his cap atop his head—
His beard sticking out and looking mean—
And about him were Jarw Ibn Kharā Inta Falḥas14
And the mushāh of the hamlet, none worth a bead,
You’d have said he was head of a band of musicians,
Or the buffoon who’d come to plead!
Gone now is
