(اى يشفق من مجانين لا انه هو منهم) يتصّدون له فيحرقون كتابه * ويخرّقون اِهابه * والزوج من فرار زوجته وكساد ابنته * وهما من بخله وحرمانها من ثروته * والقسيس من كتب الفلاسفة * والفلاسفة من وعيد القسيس وبوادره العاصفة * ورعوده القاصفة * وفى الجملة فكل ذى حرفة يخاف من انحراف نفعها عن جانبه * وكلٌ يدعو الله لصلاح حاله ولو بفساد حال صاحبه * اذ لا تكاد تتم مصلحة من هذه المصالح المذكورة * الاّ وينجرّ معها مفسدة بالضرورة * كما قال ابو الطيب المتنبى مصائب قوم عند قوم فوائد * ومع ذلك فكل يزعم انه محق فيما ساله * جدير بنوال ما امله * وان لغته فى ذلك عند الحق سبحانه وتعالى * اصدق مقالا *
Again I say, “Is it not enough for men that their lives are short and spent mostly in lengthy thought, their lot hard, each in enough care, struggle, and grief drowned to suffice him and still leave a balance to go round? The seeker after knowledge, to elucidate issues and clarify matters of debate must burn the midnight oil, to scrape the barest living the craftsman must bend over his work all day in resentful toil. The emir is preoccupied with laying down the law and maintaining his domination, the president frets over his administration. The king lives in dread lest his ministers conspire to administer to him a potion that will leave him dead, the ministers quaver lest he find fault with them and withdraw his favor. The merchant goes early to the shop he hires, worried that his goods will find no buyers. The physician fears people living more sensible lives and dispensing with his skills, leaving his drugs to go rancid and the liquids in his bottles to go stagnant, while corrupted become his powders, electuaries, dry doses, and pills. The judge prays that no young lady come before him to snare him with her looks or disconcert him with matters not found in his books, entrapping him in floss till, as to her affairs, he’s at a loss. The ship’s captain’s on guard lest a storm arise, the general against the outbreak of war’s fire, whose fuel is lives—saying, on seeing that his sultan’s thinking is quirky, his mood murky, ‘God protect me from time’s upsets and make this quirkiness a passing spell, gone before the supper bell, for in the face of my king and commander I see designs for the clash of titans and the lineaments of battle, while I have a companionate wife and children, property, and cattle! God make the foreigners hold their tongues and cease their slander, cast terror of him into their hearts and wipe from his breast aught that may make him rage or rouse his dander!’ The ploughman is afraid of too much rain and the hurricane, the educator that men will turn from a thirst for knowledge to one for ignorance, the educated that later writers will say something biting and of the consequences of writing (writing, that is, a book that will suck dry what remains of patience’s limited supply and keep him from any distraction or attraction), the singer and player of instruments that prices will become inflated or the hearts of the rich desolated, the playboy that men will be guided to become more serious, the poet that he’ll find the object of his panegyrics as impervious as rock or his beloved unresponsive and imperious, the author like me of lunatics (meaning he’s on his guard against them, not that he’s one of them),3 who may bar his path, burning his book and tearing his hide to pieces in their wrath, the husband of the decampment of his wife and of his daughter’s staying a spinster for life (as are they, in turn, of his stinginess with his pelf and denial of access to his wealth), the priest of the philosophers’ books, and the philosophers of the priest’s threats, fulminations, and thunderous looks. Thus, in sum, everyone with a trade fears lest its benefits be diverted, each prays God his affairs go right even if his friend’s must be perverted, for scarce any of the aforementioned can his own interests fulfill without another, of necessity, faring ill (as Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Mutanabbī put it, ‘The setbacks of some are for others opportunities’), despite which each claims he has a right to what he asks for, that he deserves to be granted his prayers, and that the proof of his claim lies in the sayings of the Glorious and Almighty Truth, that most truthful of sayers.”
3.1.32
نعم اعود فاقول * وان طال المقول * او ما كفى الناس الخوف من الموت يفاجئهم وهم فى دعة واطمئنان * او يفجعهم بفقد ما لديهم عزيز من اهل وولد واخوان * وخلان وحيوان * اذ بعض الناس يكلفون بالخيل والطير والسنانير والكلاب * كلفهم بالاهل والاصحاب * او الرعب من ان يسقط احدهم عن ظهر دابته فتندق عنقه * او تسرى النار فى بيته فيحترق تالده وطريفه فيعدم رزقه * او يقع فى تيّار فيجفأ به الى ما شاء الله * او تخسف به الارض * او يخرّ عليه السقف من فوق * او تبلغه الوكة من مسافة مائتى فرسخ فتقلقه وتورقه وربما ابكته دما * او ياتيه سارق فيسرق متاعه الذى هو قوام معيشته * او يفقد ما فى كيسه او هميانه فى الطريق * او ينشب فى عينه عود فيعطلها * او تتشنج به عضلة فيعد بعدها من سقط المتاع * او ياكل شيا ضارّا فيودى به * او شرابا مسموما فيسقط امعآه وارابه * او يرى جميلة فيؤرقه جمالها فيصبح وهو هائم متيّم يشكو للطبيب من سقامه * وللشاعر من غرامه * فلا هذا يطعمه ويمنّيه * ولا ذاك ينفعه ويشفيه * او قبيحة فتدهمه مَرْعبة * ويلازمه القمه عن المادبة * او تنبحه الكلاب وتخرق ثيابه فيبدو وَذَمه * او يسيل دمه * او يكون جالسا يوما على التخت * فيسمع له صريف التحت * فيسود وجهه بين اخوانه وعترته * واهل قريته وكورته * وربما نبزوه بالخَضْفى او الغَضْفى او النَضْفى او الخَبْقى١ او الخَفْقى او العَفْقى او الغَفْقى او الحَصْمى او الخَضْمى او الرُدْمى
