This is the authentic Arabic interpretation of the braying of the ass.
And Arabs should know.
And yet, as his brass-resonant howling yell resounds through the Sicilian twilight
I am not sure—
His big, furry head,
His big, regretful eyes,
His diminished, drooping hindquarters,
His small toes.
Such a dear!
Such an ass!
With such a knot inside him!
He regrets something that he remembers.
That’s obvious.
The Steppes of Tartary,
And the wind in his teeth for a bit,
And noli me tangere.
Ah then, when he tore the wind with his teeth,
And trod wolves underfoot,
And over-rode his mares as if he were savagely leaping an obstacle, to set his teeth in the sun....
Somehow, alas, he fell in love,
And was sold into slavery.
He fell into the rut of love,
Poor ass, like man, always in a rut,
The pair of them alike in that.
All his soul in his gallant member
And his head gone heavy with the knowledge of desire
And humiliation.
The ass was the first of all animals to fall finally into love,
From obstacle-leaping pride,
Mare obstacle,
Into love, mare-goal, and the knowledge of love.
Hence Jesus rode him in the Triumphant Entry.
Hence his beautiful eyes.
Hence his ponderous head, brooding over desire, and downfall, Jesus, and a pack-saddle,
Hence he uncovers his big ass-teeth and howls in that agony that is half-insatiable desire and half-unquenchable humiliation.
Hence the black cross on his shoulders.