'Would Heaven conjoint we lived, and if I die * Death only grant
me a grave within her grave:
For I'd no longer deign to live my life * If told upon her head
is laid the pave.'"[99]
Quoth Omar, "Away with him from me! Who is at the door?" and quoth Adi, "Kuthayyir 'Azzah"[100]; whereupon Omar cried, "'Tis he who saith in one of his odes,
'Some talk of faith and creed and nothing else * And wait for
pains of Hell in prayer-seat;[101] But did they hear what I from Azzah heard, * They'd make
prostration, fearfull at her feet.'
"Leave the mention of him. Who is at the door?" Quoth Adi, "Al-
Ahwas al-'Ansárí."[102] Cried Omar, "Allah Almighty put him
away and estrange him from His mercy! Is it not he who said,
berhyming on a Medinite's slave-girl, so she might outlive her
lord,
'Allah be judge betwixt me and her lord! * Who ever flies with
her and I pursue.'
"He shall not come in to me. who is at the door, other than he?"
Adi replied, "Hammám bin Ghálib al-Farazdak;"[103] and Omar
said, "'Tis he who saith, glorying in whoring,
'Two girls let me down eighty fathoms deep, * As low sweeps a
falcon wi' pinions spread;
And cried; as my toes touched the ground, 'Dost live * To return,
or the fall hath it done thee dead?
"He shall not come in to me. who is at the door, other than he?"
Adi replied, "Al-Akhtal al-Taghlibí"[104] and Omar said, "He
is the Miscreant who saith in his singing,
'Ramazan I ne'er fasted in life-time; nay * I ate flesh in public
at undurn day;[105] Nor chide I the fair, save in way of love, * Nor seek Meccah's
plain[106] in salvation-way:
Nor stand I praying like rest who cry * 'Hie
salvationwards'[107] at the dawn's first ray.
But I drink her cooled[108] by fresh Northern breeze * And my
head at dawn to her prone I lay.'[109]
"By Allah, he treadeth no carpet of mine! who is at the door,
other than he?" Said Adi, "Jarír ibn al-Khatafah"; and Omar
cried, "'Tis he who saith,
'But for ill-spying glances had our eyes espied * Eyne of the
antelope and ringlets of the Reems.[110] A huntress of the eyes[111] by night-tide came and I * Cried,
'Turn in peace, no time for visit this, meseems!'
"An it must be and no help, admit Jarir." So Adi went forth and
admitted Jarir, who entered, saying.
"Yea, he who sent Mohammed unto man, * A just successor for
Imám[112] assigned.
His ruth and justice all mankind embrace, * To daunt the bad and
stablish well-designed.
Verily now I look to present good, * For man hath ever-transient
weal in mind."
Quoth Omar, "O Jarir, keep the fear of Allah before thine eyes
and say naught save the sooth." And Jarir recited these
couplets,
"How many widows loose the hair in far Yamámah-land[113] * How
many an orphan there abides feeble of voice and eye,
Since faredst thou who wast to them instead of father lost * When
they like nested fledglings were sans power to creep or fly!
And now we hope, since brake the clouds their word and troth with
us, * Hope from the Caliph's grace to gain a rain[114] that ne'er shall dry."
When the Caliph heard this, he said, "By Allah, O Jarir, Omar possesseth but an hundred dirhams.[115] Ho, boy! do thou give them to him." Moreover he gifted him with the ornaments of his sword; and Jarir went forth to the other poets, who asked him, "What is behind thee?"[116] and he answered, "A man who giveth to the poor and denieth the poets, and with him I am well- pleased."
AL-HAJJAJ AND THE THREE YOUNG MEN[117]
They tell that Al-Hajjáj[118] once bade the Chief of Police go his rounds about Bassorah city by night, and whomsoever he found abroad after supper-tide that he should smite his neck. So he went round one night of the nights and came upon three youths swaying and staggering from side to side, and on them signs of wine-bibbing. So the watch laid hold of them and the captain said to them, "Who be you that ye durst transgress the commandment of the Commander of the Faithful[119] and come abroad at this hour?" quoth one of the youths, "I am the son of him to whom all necks[120] abase themselves, alike the nose- pierced of them and the breaker; they come to him in their own despite, abject and submissive, and he taketh of their wealth and of their blood." The Master of Police held his hand from him,, saying, "Belike he is of the kinsman of the Prince of True Believers," and said to the second, "Who art thou?" Quoth he, "I am the son of him whose rank[121] Time abaseth not, and if it be lowered one day, 'twill assuredly return to its former height; thou seest the folk crowd in troops to the light of his fire, some standing around it and some sitting." So the Chief of Police refrained from slaying him and asked the third, "Who art thou?" He answered, "I am the son of him who plungeth through the ranks[122] with his might and levelleth them with the sword, so that they stand straight: his feet are not loosed from the stirrup, whenas the horsemen on the day of the battle are a- weary." So the Master of the Police held his hand from him also, saying, "Belike, he is the son of a Brave of the Arabs." Then he kept them under guard, and when the morning morrowed, he referred their case to Al-Hajjaj, who caused bring them before him and enquiring into their affair, when behold, the first was the son of a barber-surgeon, the second of a bean-seller, and the third of a weaver. So he marvelled at their eloquent readiness of speech and said to the men of his assembly, "Teach your sons the rhetorical use of Arabic:[123] for, by Allah, but for their ready wit, I had smitten off their heads!"