أنا لا شد كوري فوق ما كان
ذلول مصنعة وشداد ماكن
نشدت الواردات منين ماكن
قالن لي
غريف من الندى
ومعنى البيت سأشد رحلي على ناقتي المصنعة ،وأسير، وقد سألت
الفتيات من أين ملأن قربهن فقلن إنهن غرفن الماء من الندى الساقط على العشب.
Me, I cinch fast my
saddle up on high;
On a thoroughbred
camel my gear do I tie.
"Whence is
your water?" of the girls asked I.
They told me:
"A scoop from the dew."
The meaning of the
verse is: I will fasten my saddle onto my thoroughbred she-camel and travel
forth. I asked the girls from where they filled their containers, and they said
that they had scooped the water from the dew fallen on the herbage.
==
The saluki was thus
an important factor in the hunting of the gazelle, onager, oryx, and rabbit. As
we have seen in the verse of al-Qutami, it was compared to the thoroughbred;
and the Bedouins even claim that the qualities appreciated in the parts of the thoroughbred's
body are also appreciated in salukis. This reached the point that they began to
trace their pedigrees as they did with horses, and to describe some of them by
their pedigrees and names. As they said:
وهكذا فقد كان الكلب السلوقي عنصراً هاماً في صيد الغزال
والفـرا والمهاة والأرنب.
ويشبه بالجواد كما نرى
في شعر القطامي. بل إن العرب تزعم أن ما يستحسن بالجواد
من محاسن في أعضاء
جسمه يستحسن أيضاً في الكلاب السلوقية وبلغ بهم أخذوا ينسبونها كما تنسب الخيل
ويصفون بعضها بأنسابها وأسمائها وقالوا :
سحام وبقلاء القنيص وسلهب وحدلاء والسرحان والمتناول
بنات سلوقيين كانا حيــاتـه فماتا فأودى شخصه فهو
خايل
Al-Qanis and
Salhab, Siham and Baqla',
Al-Sirhan and al-Mutanawal
and Hadla':
Born of two salukis
by which his life was made,
He died when they
did, and survives as a shade.
==
Concerning the lore
told about the attachment and yearning of she-camels, the Bedouins also claim
that the camel is of a brutish nature, but say that despite this it is fond of
tunes and melodies and listens to its master's voice when he sings songs or
camel ditties (huda') to it. A story handed down over the generations
has it that there was an Arab camel driver, named Sallam,
who sang so well to camels that he became the basis for a proverb. "They
used to let the camels go thirsty for days, and then water them," it was
said, "and Sallam would stand behind them singing to them, and the camels
would leave the water and come to him." Their poets did not neglect to
mention this tale. Indicating that the voice
of the singer could
make camels led to the watering place forget all about drinking, they related
that one such singer said:
وعلى ما عرف من عطف النياق وحنينها فإن العرب تزعم أيضاً أن
الجمل غليظ الكبد ولكنهم يقولون إنه برغم غلاظة كبده يحب الألحان والنغم ويصغي إلى
صوت صاحبه حين يغني أو يحدو له، وروي أنه كان هناك رجل من حداة العرب يضرب بـه
المثل في حسن الحداء اسمه سلام، قيل إنهم كانوا
يعطشون الإبل أياماً ثم يوردونها الماء، ويقف سلام من ورائها يحدو لها فتنصرف عن
الماء اليه, ولم يفت شعراءهم أن يذكروا هذا فقد رووا عن أحدهم أنه قال مشيراً إلى
أن صوت الحادي قد يذهل الإبل عن شرب الماء بعد أن تكون شرعت في الورد :
إن كنتَ تُنكر أن في الألحان فائدةٌ ونَفْعًا
فانظر إلى الإبل التي لا شك أغلظ منك طبعا
تصغي لأصوات الحداة فتقطع الفلوات قطعـا
ومن العجائب أَنهم يُظمئونها خمساً وربعا
فإذا تورّدت الحياض وشارفت
في الماءِ كَرْعا
وتشـوقـت لــلـصـوت مـن حادٍ تُصيــخ الـيـه سـمـعـا
ذهلت عن الماء الذي
تلتلذه برداً ونفعا
شوقاً إلى النعم التي اطربْنَها لحناً وسمعا
That melodies are
of both use and avail
Is a viewpoint which
you may now slight.
Yet look to the
camels, which compared to you,
Are surely more
brutish by natural right.
They harken unto
the voices of drivers,
So that traverse
the waterless wastes they might.
That they should go
thirsty for five days, or four,
Is surely a nigh
well remarkable sight.
And so when they
begin to drink from the troughs,
And gulping down
water their thirst to requite,
And yearn for a
driver to sing them a song,
Their attention
upon him to pause and alight,
They forget the
water in which they'd revel,
With its cool
relief from their thirsting plight,
Longing for the
song whose air and tune
Fills them with joy
and enraptured delight
