sign indicating that he was head over heels in love.
3.2.3
ومكثا على ذلك مدة وهو احذر من القِرِلَّى * حتى اذا كان يوم ورآها تمسح محاجرها بمنديل امّا من حرّ الشمس او من غيره اعتقد بمجامع قلبه انها تمسح دموعها شوقا اليه * فانفتقت بنائق الصبر من صدره * وهاج به الوجد لازالة حذره * وقال فى نفسه ايقابل احد غيرى دموع باكية بالاعراض * وهل ورآ الدموع غير الهوى * كيف لا تذيبنى وما قلبى بجلمد * ولا انا بمخلّد * وقد علمت ان اعظم لذات الحيوة ما اذا وجد الانسان له خدينا نويّا * وقرينا صفيّا * وانا غريب محتاج الى مؤنس فى وحشتى * ورفيق فى وحدتى * ومَن مؤنسٌ مثل الزوجة * واىّ خير فى العزوبة لمن رزقه الله قوته وحَوْجه *
The two of them continued in this fashion for a while, he behaving more shyly than the loon, which dives the moment it senses danger, until that day when he saw her wipe her eyes with a handkerchief (whether from the heat of the sun or for some other reason) and convinced himself in the depths of his soul that she was wiping away tears of yearning for him. At this his breast burst the gussets of resignation and emotion drove him to abandon circumspection. To himself he said, “Would any but I confront the tears of a weeping woman by turning away? And behind those tears can there be anything but love? How can they not melt me, when my heart’s no rock, I no knave of low-mannered stock? I know that the greatest pleasures in life depend on finding a boon companion and sympathetic friend. I am a stranger, in need of one to cheer me when I long for home, a comrade when I’m all alone. Who better to cheer one than a wife, and what benefit lies in bachelorhood once God has provided one with food and the other needs of life?”
3.2.4
وبمثل هذه الخواطر السريعة وطّن نفسه على تحمّل اعبآ الهوى من اى جهة كانت * فمن ثم فتح باب الاشارة بينهما * فمن بين يد توضع على القلب مرة وعلى الخد اخرى * واصبع تقرن باخرى * وذراعين تشبحان مع تنفس وزفير * وشفتين تضمّان * وراس يهزّ وغير ذلك مما يتعلل به المبتدئون فى الحب * فاما المتناهون فلا يرضيهم الاّ الهصر بالفودين كما نص عليه الاستاذ امرء القيس * ودامت دولة الاشارة بينهما اياما مديدة من دون كلام * فلما عجزت الايدى وسائر الجوارح عن ترجمة ما فى القلب وخصوصا لبُعد ما بينهما احتالا على ان يجتمعا فى مكان بحيث يرى المحب حبيبه *
By such speedy calculations, he reconciled himself to bearing the burdens of love from wherever it might come and this opened the door before the two of them to signing back and forth with a hand placed now upon the heart, next upon the cheek, a finger yoked to another, beseeching arms extended with a gulp and a sigh, pursed lips, a nodding head, and other such things to which love’s novices resort (old hands in contrast being satisfied with nothing less than the “twisting of the side-tresses”12 specified by the master, Imruʾ al-Qays). The era of the sign lasted for many long days, without speech, but when the hands and other limbs could no longer translate what was in the heart, especially in view of the distance between them, they came up with a stratagem by which they might meet in a certain place, so that the lover might behold his beloved.
3.2.5
فلما بصر بها عن قريب وجدها والفضل لمخترع الزى المصرى عَنْدلة جَزْلة * اذ لو كانت متردية بالزى الافرنجى لما عرف هل كان ما فى صدرها عِهْنا او برْسا او قطنا * او خُرْفعا او عُطْما * او بَيْلَما * او قِشْبرا او حريرا او نَوْدلَا(١)(١) العِهْن الصوف او المصبوغ الوانا والبرس القطن او شبيه به او قطن البردى والخرفع القطن المندوف والعطم الصوف المنفوش والبيلم قطن البردى وقطن القصب والقشبر اردا الصوف ونفايته والنودل الثدى * او كان ما ورآها عُظّامة او لحما وشحما * قال وهاتان الصفتان اعنى العَنْدلية والجزلية احسن ما يراد من المراة * فان الاولى تشفع فى الكون الامامى والثانية فى الكون الخلفى * قلت وقد جآء عن سيدنا سليمان عٓم مدح العندلية بقوله فى الفصل الخامس من سفر الامثال فليروينَّك ثدياها فى كل حين * ولقائل ان يقول ان العهن واخواته مع وجود اليد والجتّ(٢)(٢) الجَتّ جسّ الكبش ليعرف سمنه من هزاله * * اذا جمع الجسمين مكان لا يمنع من تحقق الصفتين المذكورتين * والجواب ان ذلك محظور غالبا فى البلاد المشرقية ولا سيما من اول مرة * فاما عند غيرهم فلا محظور منه ولذلك شاع استعمال العظّامات عندهم بلا نكير *
When he saw her close up, he found her to be a woman big of bosom and bottom, the credit for this going to the inventor of Egyptian dress, for had she been wearing Frankish clothes, he would never have known if the things on her chest were dyed wool, cotton bolls, cotton cardings, teased wool, papyrus cotton, wool waste, silk, or breasts,(1)(1) ʿihn is “wool, or wool that has been colored by dyeing”; birs is “cotton, or something resembling it, or papyrus cotton”; khurfuʿ is “carded cotton”; ʿuṭm is “teased wool”; baylam is “papyrus cotton” and “sugarcane cotton”; qishbir is “the worst cotton, or cotton waste”; nawdal means “breast.” or whether what was behind her was a bustle or flesh and fat. These two characteristics—by which I mean bigness of bosom and bigness of bottom—are the best one can want from a woman, for the first assures the appeal of the forward dimension, the second that of the rearward. I might add that it is reported that Our Master Sulaymān, peace be upon him, said in praise of bigness of bosom (Proverbs, chapter 5), “Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times.”13 Someone might object that, should the two bodies be gathered together in one place, the presence of colored wool, etc., would not—given the presence of hands and possibility of their giving the body a good squeeze here and there as one would when testing a ram for fatness(2)(2) jatt is “feeling a ram, to know what part of it is fat and what lean.”—prevent the investigation of the status of
