Of Contentment
WHEN the lover finds himself barred from attaining union, he must inevitably be content with things as he finds them. To comport oneself thus distracts the soul, occupies one's hopes, renews one's aspirations, and provides a certain measure of relief. There are various degrees of Contentment, proportionate to the success realized in striving to attain it.
The first step is the visit: which is something to look forward to, a pleasurable opportunity given by destiny despite the shyness and embarrassment which accompany it, each of the loving couple being conscious of what is passing in the other's thoughts. The visit is of two kinds. In the first it is the lover who visits the beloved; this is a very extensive subject. In the second the beloved visits the lover; but then there is no other possibility of intercourse apart from gazing at one another and talking openly, as I have described in this poem.
When meeting in society
I'll be content to gaze on thee,
Since union is beyond my reach.
It will suffice me, if I may
Once daily join thy company,
Though it was not enough for me
Ere this, to meet thee twice a day.
Provincial governors aspire
To greatest heights, when fortune thrives,
Yet are content to save their lives
If they are ordered to retire.
The return of greetings, and the pleasure of a personal exchange of words, is something well worth hoping for. Certainly I have expressed the following opinion:
And feign to be contented to
Receive an affable reply
When I salute, or say goodbye.
But that in fact only applies when one is being removed to an inferior rung of the ladder of love. Creatures differ from each other in respect of all their attributes according to the relation in which they stand, towards what is above and what is below them. I know a man who used to say to his beloved, " Make me a promise, and lie to me! " He was quite content to console himself with his dear one's promise, even though he knew it was not sincere. I made up a poem on this situation.
Is an ambition far too high,
And amorous propinquity
Denied, yet promise me, and lie!
Perchance the thought of meeting thee,
The hope that fortune may relent
Will save the dying heart in me,
Tormented so by banishment.
For men afflicted long by thirst
Find consolation, to espy
The bright, deceptive lightnings burst
Along the margin of the sky.
Relevant to this topic is a thing which I myself once witnessed, in company with another. One of my dearest friends was stabbed by his loved one with a dagger; I saw him kissing the place of the wound, and scratching the scar again and again. The scene inspired me to poetry.
The one thou lovest so";
But I replied, "Ah no,
He never wounded me.
But when my blood observed
My love approaching nigh,
To him my blood did fly,
And not a moment swerved.
"O thou who slayest me,
So cruel and so sweet,
So fair, so harsh, so meet,
Let me thy ransom be! "
It belongs to contentment that a man will be rejoiced arid- satisfied to possess some little thing belonging to the beloved: this affects the soul in a most delightful way, even if the result be no more than that restoration of his sight to Jacob which transpired, as we are told in Holy Writ, when he smelt the scent of Joseph's tunic, peace be upon them both! I have some verses on this.
To my mistress dear;
She persevered most cruelly
To abandon me.
Some garment wherein she had dressed,
Something she caressed
To gaze on these, all else denied,
I was satisfied.
So likewise Prophet Jacob, who
Came with guidance true,
And over Joseph many years
Shed such bitter tears
Until his sorrow struck him blind,
Scenting on the wind
His tunic, hailed him with delight
And regained his sight.
I never saw any amorous couple who did not exchange locks of hair, perfumed with ambergris and sprinkled with rosewater, done up at the roots with mastica or clarified white wax, and wrapped about in ribbons of embroidered cloth, silk or the like, to serve as a souvenir when they are separated. As for exchanging; chewed toothpicks, or mastica after it has been used; that is a frequent practise of lovers who have been barred from meeting. I have a little poem to the point.
Believe, is Life's own fount to me,
Yet she destroys my heart entire
In flames of passionate desire.
A friend informed me that he was told by Sulaiman Ibn Ahmad the poet, that he saw Ibn Sahl al-Hajib a number of times in the island of Sicily; he described; him as a supremely handsome man. One day, he said, he observed him walking in a pleasure garden, followed-I by a woman who watched him all the while. When he was gone afar off; she came to the place where; he had implanted his steps and set herself to kissing, it, embracing with her lips the traces of his feet upon the ground. I made up some verses on this, beginning as follows.
I trampled where his footfall was;
Were but the truth known, surely he
Who blames me now, would envy me!
O ye who dwell upon this earth
Whose clouds rain little on our dearth,
Receive the counsel that I give,
And free and thankful ye shall live.
Take of the blessed dust whereon
His accidental steps have gone
I guarantee, beyond all doubt,
Ye shall be never plagued with drought.
Wherever in this world at all
The impress of his foot may fall,
That dust is pure and sanctified,
Its wells of goodness never dried.
So did the Samiri indeed;
For, as in Holy Writ we read,
When he beheld the glorious trace
Of Gabriel's footsteps, of that place
He gathered up the soil, and thrust
Into his golden calf that dust,
And forthwith, from its hollow throat,
Issued a long and lowing note.
Elsewhere in the poem I have these two stanzas.
That earth is wonderfully blest;
Blest are all they who there abide,
And there good fortune doth reside.
Its rocks are pearls bright-glistening,
And of its thistles roses spring;
All honey are its running rills,
Its soil sweet ambergris distils.
To contentment belongs the satisfaction which the lover experiences in the visitation of the nightly phantom, and the salutation of the apparition. This happens only as the result of a recollection which never deserts the mind, a faithfulness which changes not, and an unending meditation upon the beloved object. When all eyes are sleeping, and all motions stilled, then the phantom walks abroad; as I have said in this poem.
A youth long prisoner to love;
No guardian was aware thereof,
No watcher spied upon that sight.
To joy supreme and unconfined
That night I yielded up my soul;
The apparition's pleasure stole
The joy of waking from my mind.
I also have these stanzas on the same theme.
As on my quiet bed I lay;
Night reigned in universal sway,
Long shadows slept o'er land and sea.
I know her body, still and cold,
Sleeps in the dust this weary while;
But on that night I saw her smile
In all her beauty, as of old.
We knew again the lovers' kiss,
And we were happy, she and I,
As in the days so long gone by;
And joy renewed is sweeter bliss.
In explanation of the phantom's visitation the poets offer strange theories, all far-fetched and original; each poet has invented some notion of his own. Abu Ishaq Ibn Saiyar al-Nazzam, the head of the Mu`tazilites, assigned as the cause of this visitation the fear souls have of that watcher who is appointed to watch over bodies grown too familiar. Abu Tammam Habib Ibn Aus al-Ta'i explains that phantom intercourse does not corrupt love, as do carnal relations; while al-Buhturi accounts for the advent of the phantom as due to its desire to be irradiated by the fire of the lover's passion, and its retreat as provoked by the fear of being drowned in his tears. For my own part, without aspiring to compare my poetry with theirs-for they have the merit of preceding us and being our forerunners; they were the reapers, and we are but the gleaners-yet being ambitious to follow in their footsteps, to run in their arena, and to pursue the path which they pioneered and made plain, I have ventured to invent some tuneful verses in which I have set forth my understanding of this phantom visitation.
My eyes alight upon thee yet,
And fear to hold thee overmuch
Lest thou be melted by my touch.
So by such caution moved, my sweet,
I suffer not that we should meet,
Intending rather that we keep,
Our rendezvous, when I'm asleep.
For if I slumber, then my soul
Shall have thee only, have thee whole;
No body gross shall come between
Our spirits, subtle and unseen.
This spiritual unity
More sweet a thousand fold shall be,
More fine, more tender, and more fresh
Than the hot intercourse of flesh.
The situation of the lover visited in a dream is of four different kinds. First there is the jilted lover, who after 'extended affliction sees in his slumber that his beloved 'has now come to him; he is rejoiced thereat, and full of gladness; but then he awakes, and falls into despair and sighing, on realizing that he has been merely experiencing the projection of his own wishes and inner suggestions. I have illustrated this in verse.
When daylight shines on us;
When night o'erspread all space,
Thou wert most generous.
What, choosest thou the sun
Thy substitute to be?
Ah, this thing to have done
Was little just in thee.
Thy distant "phantom came
My visitor; I lay
Asleep; thy loving aim
Fond union, and sweet play.
But ah! thou didst deny
Complete accomplishment,
Allowing but that I
Should breathe joy's tender scent.
I was as they who roam
In Purgatory drear;
Not Paradise my home,
Nor Hell my horrid fear.
The second kind of visitation is to the lover who enjoy. union with his beloved, but is apprehensive that some change may take place in their relations. He has see', while sleeping that his beloved is breaking off with him and is therefore exceedingly anxious; then he wake up from slumber, and realizes that his vision was quit false, being a mere figment of his fearful imagination.
The third situation is when the lover, living in close' proximity to the beloved, has a vision of being sudden.1 afflicted by far sundering from her; he is much trouble, and afraid; then he awakes, and all his cares vanish so that he is filled with joy again. I have some verse, on this.
Thou wast about to part from me;
We bade each other tenderly
Farewell, and fast my tears did flow.
Then slumber left my weeping eyes,
And we were locked in fond embrace,
And all my fearful grief gave place
To joy renewed and glad surprise.
I took thee in my arms again,
And held thee closer to my breast,
As if by rapture repossessed
In lieu of separation's pain.
The fourth and last variety of visitation is experienced; by the lover who dwells at a distance from his beloved, and sees in a vision that the interval between them has converted to proximity, and that their apartments are now near neighbors; he is much relieved, and is feeling at ease for not being sorrowful any more, when he rises from his slumber and sees that his dream is not true; then he returns to even more violent grief than that which afflicted him before.
In one of my poems I have given the cause of sleep the lover's ardent desire to see the phantom image.
The lover fond and desperate;
Had he not hoped the ghost might keep
His tryst, he were not then asleep.
Be not amazed, if visions walk
By night, and through the shadows stalk;
Their radiance, bright as risen day;
Frightens all darkness's away.
The lover may enjoy a certain kind of contentment by regarding the walls and viewing the battlements, which encompass the object of his affection. I have myself seen a man of this description; and Abu 'l-Walid Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ishaq al-Khazin spoke to me of a very respectable man, who informed him that he discovered satisfaction in an identical manner.
Another sort of contentment is for the lover to console himself on seeing someone who has seen the beloved, and making friends with him; or on discovering someone body who has come from the beloved's country. This is very common, and I have expressed the point in verse.
Of those who once resided there,
Like, to the habitations rude
Of 'Ad, succeeded by Thamud.
Here it will be appropriate to quote some stanzas which I was inspired to compose under the following circumstances. I was taking a walk in an orchard, the property of a friend of mine, accompanied by a group of comrades, all men of breeding and nobility. We promenaded for an hour, and then sat us down in a most desirable spot. There we stretched ourselves at our ease in spacious gardens; the broad panorama was a joy to the contemplative eye, a rich pasture to the ruminating spirit. Brooks ran through the meadows like silver ewers; birds chanted melodies that put to shame the inventions of Ma'bad and al-Gharid; hanging fruits leaned down to our reaching fingers, ready and eager to be gathered. Between the grateful shades we glimpsed the sun, that looked like the squares of a chessboard or gowns of gay brocade; sweet flowed the water, imparting the veritable savour of life; swift gushed the rivulets, sliding like serpents' bellies, their murmur now rising, now falling. Gay flowers of variegated hue swayed to the gentle fragrant zephyrs; the air was mild and cool; and my companions excelled all this loveliness in the beauty of their natural qualities. It was a spring day, and the submissive sun was now-' veiled in delicate vapors and light clouds, now stood revealed like a shy maiden, some modest virgin showing herself to her lover from behind the curtains, then, vanishing into them for fear of a watchful eye. One of our numbers all this while sat with downcast eyes, as if he were communing with the earth, on account of some secret he had in his heart. My attention was drawn in his direction, and my comrades and I jested, together a little while; then I was charged to speak a few verses as if by his mouth. I thereupon recited some stanzas extempore, and all that was written down' was these fragments we chanced to remember after we took our departure.
Along the margin of a mead
O'erhung with branches, thickly tree'd
And dew-besprinkled was -the earth;
And all about us through the glade
Refulgent blossoms laughed for glee,
And shook their bracelets fragrantly
Perfuming the expansive shade;
And nightingales with throbbing throats
Revealed to us their lovely song,
And some were mourners in that throng,
And some raised high exultant notes;
And waters all among the trees
Ran as they listed; sweet delight
Awaited the appraising sight,
And joy was there for hand to seize
And all the spirit could desire
Was given to companion us
Friends highly born and chivalrous,
Artificers of glory's spire;
Yet all the grace and beauty rare
I have described did little please
My soul, or give my spirit ease,
My love not being with me there.
O let me lie in some dark cell
Close clasped against my darling's breast,
And let you in the loveliest
Of palaces together dwell!
Whoever of us then would pray
To substitute for that his lot
His brother's portion, which is not,
Or rule in everlasting sway,
Thenceforth may he in servitude,
In torment, and in misery
Live out his days, eternally
Damned to disgrace, and shame renewed!
Thereupon the downcast one, and all the company assembled, cried out, " Amen, amen!
These aspects which I have here enumerated and set down are the genuine manifestations of contentment, without exaggeration-:or understatement, and are to be found among all true lovers.
The poets however have a sort of contentment by which they desire to manifest their virtuosity and to demonstrate their mastery of obscure ideas and farfetched notions. Every poet has uttered according to the scope of his natural faculty; but it is merely a matter of verbal dexterity, volubility, and fluency of expression; what he says is not fundamentally genuine.
One poet is content that the same heavens should overshadow him and his beloved, and the same earl support them both; another is content that night an day should encompass himself and his loved one on equal terms; and so forth. Each poet strains to outstrip fellows in achieving the furthest attainable goal, and carrying off the palm for subtlety and refinement may mention here a poem of my own composition belonging to this category, which no man following after me will ever be able to rival or excel; my theme is the reason for the proximity of remoteness!
"It is enough for me", I say,
"The time we dwell in, he and I,
Is one, and thence he cannot fly.
"The selfsame sun that shines on me
Irradiates him equally,
As every day it passes through
The skies in lustre ever new.
"Can he be said to live afar,
Seeing the distance that we are
Apart exceeds not any way
The journey of a single day?
"The One Creator in His mind
Comprises both of us combined;
I am content, nor seek to be
In closer contiguity."
Here, as you will observe, I have expressed myself as content to be combined with my beloved in the Knowledge of God, in which are comprehended the heavens; the spheres, all the worlds, and every single existing thing, yet without affinity and without particularity; nothing whatsoever escapes there from. Then I have further restricted myself, touching the Divine Knowledge, to saying that my love and I dwell within a single time. (This is even more general than what others have expressed, when they have spoken of being coin prised with the beloved in the same night and day though to be true it may appear to the listener at first caring to amount to the same thing.) For all creatures under the dominion of Time, which is a term devised signify the passing of the hours, the crossing of the firmament, and the movements of the heavenly bodies. Night and day are engendered by the rising and sinking of the sun, and somewhere come to an end in the supernal world; not so Time. Night and day are therefore but part of Time. It is true that certain philosophers have asserted that " shadow extends infinitely "; but this pretension is proved erroneous by ocular observation; the reasons for refuting their view are quite clear, but ' is not the place to set them forth. In my poem I have also explained that my beloved is in the extreme East of the cultivated world, and that I am in the extreme West, thus specifying the furthest range of, human habitation; yet the distance dividing us is but the journey of a single day, since the sun appears at the beginning of the day in the furthest East, and sets at he end of the day in the furthest West.
There exists another variety of contentment which I will now set down; and in doing so I take refuge with 'God from this, and from all those who practise it, and five Him thanks that He has inspired our souls to shun it. This contentment is only experienced when the reason goes totally astray, the intelligence is corrupted, the discretion destroyed; the hardest things then prove easy. Fond jealousy vanishes, and proper pride is lost; h man will acquiesce in sharing his beloved with other. There are people to whom this has actually appended; may God preserve us from such a calamity! But for this in truth to happen, a man must needs have currish nature, and be entirely bereft of reason, the touchstone of all that falls beneath its sway; he must insensitive in the extreme. The situation is further aggravated by a love, which is both violent and blind. When all these factors are combined together, and then fertilized by the mingling and interpenetration of the natural temperaments, the resulting issue is that vile nature of which I have spoken; this base quality is duly born, to reveal itself in such ignoble and gusting conduct. To a man possessing the least spark of honour and chivalry, all this is more remote than t Pleiades; though he should die of passion, and be torn to pieces by love. I have given voice to this sentiment in some verses in which I expressed my contempt foal man who practiced that kind of " tolerance ".
And well content with what is thine
Complaisance is the thing to want
Indulgence is a virtue fine!
To call a water-wheel thy own:
This makes thee richly satisfied,
Though it is in the mill alone
That true possession doth reside.
The camel's member doth outweigh,
Thou calculates, and by far,
The kid entire: then disobey
Thy critics, who so captious are.
The object of thy so fond love
With his two swords adroitly plays;
Where'er he turneth, do thou move,
And follow him in all his ways!
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