XXV. The Maqáma of the Famine
XXV. THE MAQAMA OF THE FAMINE
‘ÍSÁ IBN HISHÁM related to us and said: I was in Baghdad in a famine year, 4 and so I approached a company, united 5 like the Pleiades, in order to ask something of them. Now there was among them a youth with a lisp in his tongue and a space between his front teeth. He asked: 'What is thy affair?' 6 I replied: 'Two conditions in which a man prospers not: that of a beggar harassed by hunger, and that of an exile to whom return is impossible.' The boy then said: 'Which of the two breaches dost thou wish stopped first?' I answered: 'Hunger, for it has become extreme with me.' He said: 'What sayest thou to a white cake on a clean table, picked herbs with very sour vinegar, fine date-wine with pungent mustard, roast meat ranged on a skewer with a little salt, placed now before thee by one who will not put thee off with a promise nor torture thee with delay, and who will afterwards follow it up 7 with golden goblets of the juice of the grape? Is that preferable to thee, or a large company, full cups, variety of dessert, spread carpets, brilliant lights, and a skilful minstrel with the eye and neck of a gazelle?
[paragraph continues] 'If thou desirest neither this nor that, what is thy verdict regarding fresh meat, river fish, fried brinjal, 1 the wine of Quṭrubbul 2 picked apples, 3 a soft bed on a lofty place, opposite a rapid river, a gushing fountain, and a garden with streams in it?' ‘Ísá ibn Hishám related: So I said: 'I am the slave of all three.' The boy said: 'And so am I their servant, if they were only present.' I then said: 'May God not bless thee! Thou hast revived desires which despair had destroyed, and now thou hast gripped their palate. 4 From which ruins dost thou hail?' He said:--
'I am of the citizens of Alexandria, 5
Of sound and pure stock among them.
The age and the people thereof are stupid,
Therefore I made my stupidity my steed!'