XX. The Maqama of the Ape

XX. THE MAQAMA OF THE APE

‘ÍSÁ IBN HISHÁM related to us and said: While I was in the city of Peace, 1 returning from the Sacred Territory, 2 I was swaggering along, with the swaggering of pedestrians, on the bank of the Tigris, observing those rare sights and closely examining those embellishments until, suddenly, I reached a ring of men crowding together, excitement agitating their heads 3 and laughter exploding 4 their cheeks. Curiosity impelled me to do what it had driven them to do, till I stood within earshot of the voice of a man without being able to see his face, because of the intensity of the thronging and the excessiveness of the crowding, and behold! it was a monkey-trainer causing his monkey to dance and making those near him to laugh. So I bounded as bounds the well-trained hound, 5 and went forward, after the manner of one lame, over the necks of the people. This one's shoulder throwing me in that one's stomach, 6 until I made the beards of two men my carpet and sat down after much fatigue. 7 And verily shame choked me with its spittle and the straitness of the place distressed me. When the monkey-trainer had finished his performance and the place of assembly divested itself of its people, I arose, and verily terror had clothed me in its garb, and I stood up that I might see his face, and lo! by Heavens! it was Abú’l-Fatḥ, al-Iskanderí. So I said: 'Sirrah, what meaneth this baseness?' Then he indited saying:--

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'The sin is the days’ 1 not mine,
So censure the vicissitudes of the nights.
By means of folly I obtained my desire
And proudly trailed my embellished skirts.'

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