Al-Mutanabbi

thumb|right|The desert knows me well, the night, the mounted menThe battle and the sword, the paper and the pen! Al-Mutanabbi (915–965 CE) was an Arab poet of the Abbassid era. He is considered as one of the greatest poets of the Arabic language. Quotes إذا رَأيْتَ نُيُوبَ اللّيْثِ بارِزَةً   فَلا تَظُنّنّ أنّ اللّيْثَ يَبْتَسِمُ Ah, when the lion bares his teeth, suspect his guile,Nor fancy that the lion shows to thee a smile!Al-Mutanabbi Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn wikipedia:Al-Mutanabbi Arberry Arthur John mdy Poems of Al-Mutanabbî: A Selection with Introduction, Translations and Notes Cambridge University Press Cambridge 978-0-521-04038-9 Translation by R. A. Nicholson. When you see the fangs of lions exposed, do not suppose that the lion is smiling.Al-Mutanabbi Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn wikipedia:Al-Mutanabbi Arberry Arthur John mdy Poems of Al-Mutanabbî: A Selection with Introduction, Translations and Notes Cambridge University Press Cambridge 978-0-521-04038-9 Translation by A.J. Arberry. الخَيْلُ وَاللّيْلُ وَالبَيْداءُ تَعرِفُني   وَالسّيفُ وَالرّمحُ والقرْطاسُ وَالقَلَمُ The desert knows me well, the night, the mounted menThe battle and the sword, the paper and the pen! إِذَا أَنْتَ أَكْرَمْتَ الْكَرِيمَ مَلَكْتَهُ   وَإِنْ أَنْتَ أَكْرَمْتَ اللَّئِيمَ تَمَرَّدَا When you honour a noble man, you own him, but if you honour an ignoble man, he rebels. ما كُلُّ ما يَتَمَنّى المَرءُ يُدرِكُهُ   تَجري الرِياحُ بِما لا تَشتَهي السُفُنُ A man does not attain everything that he desires; the winds convey whither the ships do not list. أعَزُّ مَكانٍ في الدُّنَى سَرْجُ سابحٍ   وَخَيرُ جَليسٍ في الزّمانٍ كِتابُ A charger's saddle is an exalted throneThe best companions are books alone.Nasir Kamal Gatta January 2015 Aphoristic Sentences in Selected Poems of Al-Mutanabbi https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kamal-Nasir/publication/322131631_Aphoristic_Sentences_in_Selected_Poems_of_Al-Mutanabbi/links/5a467d5e0f7e9ba868aa4bb4/Aphoristic-Sentences-in-Selected-Poems-of-Al-Mutanabbi.pdf PDF أنا الذي نظر الأعمى إلى أدبي   وأسمعت كلماتي من به صمم I am the one whose writing even the blind seeand the one whose poems have brought hearing to the deafLarkin Margaret 2008 Al-Mutanabbī: Voice of the Abbasid Poetic Ideal Oneworld Publications Oxford 978-1-851-68406-9 Variant translation: My deep poetic art the blind have eyes to see,My verses ring in ears as deaf as deaf can be.Nuwas Abu wikipedia:Abu Nuwas Al-Mutanabbi Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn wikipedia:Al-Mutanabbi Al-Ma’arri wikipedia:Al-Ma’arri mdy Three Great Abbasid Poets: Abu Nuwas, al-Mutanabbi & al-Ma'arri, Lives & Poems New Humanity Books 978-1512106541 Translation by Paul Smith. ar وَلَوْ كَانَ النِّسَاءُ كَمَنْ فَقَدْنَا   لَفُضِّلَتِ النِّسَاءُ عَلَى الرِّجَالِوَمَا التَّأْنِيثُ لِاسْمِ الشَّمْسِ عَيْبٌ   وَلَا التَّذْكِيرُ فَخْرٌ لِلْهِلَالِ If all women were like as the one we have lost,Then women would be preferred to men.For the feminine gender is no shame for the sun,Nor is the masculine gender an honor for the crescent moon. From the poem Nuʿiddu al-Mashrafiyyata wa-l-ʿAwālī ar ذُو الْعَقْلِ يَشْقَى فِي النَّعِيم بِعَقْلِهِ   وَأَخُو الْجَهَالَةِ فِي الشَّقَاوَةِ يَنْعَمُ Those with intellect suffer in bliss with their intellect, and the ignorant live blissfully in misery. From the poem Li-Hawā An-Nufūsi, Line 8 ar لَكَ الحَمدُ في الدُرِّ الَّذي لِيَ لَفظُهُ   فَإِنَّكَ مُعطيهِ وَإِنِّيَ ناظِمُ To you belongs the praise for these pearls I pronounce; you are the giver, I the arranger. From the poem "To Sayf Al-Dawla" (in Arabic) ar إِذا غامَرتَ في شَرَفٍ مَرومٍ   فَلا تَقنَع بِما دونَ النُجومِ If you venture in pursuit of glory,don’t be satisfied with less than the stars. Translation by Kevin Blankinship إِنَّ السِلاحَ جَميعُ الناسِ تَحمِلُهُ   وَلَيسَ كُلُّ ذَواتِ المِخلَبِ السَبُعُ All sorts of men carry weapons; but not all who have claws are lions.Hamori Andras mdy The Composition of Mutanabbī's Panegyrics to Sayf al-Dawla https://archive.org/details/compositionofmut0000hamo Brill Publishers E.J. Brill Leiden 978-90-04-09366-9 Arabic text: وَيَطلِبُ عِندَ الناسِ ما عِندَ نَفسِهِ *** وَذَلِكَ ما لا تَدَّعيهِ الضَراغِمُ He asks from men all that he has in himself, though even lions would not claim to match that. From the poem "To Sayf al-Dawla" (archived) أَنَامُ مِلْءَ جُفُونِي عَنْ شَوَارِدِهَا *** وَيَسْهَرُ الْخَلْقُ جَرَّاهَا وَيَخْتَصِمُ I sleep soundly unconcerned with fugitive verseswhile men keep vigil for them and struggle to extract them Ode on the Reconquest of Al-Hadath ar عَلى قَدرِ أَهلِ العَزْمِ تَأتي العَزائِمُ  وَتَأتي عَلى قَدرِ الكِرامِ المَكارِمُ Man’s resolutions are in measure with his will; his noble deeds in measure with his noble heart.Moss Joyce 2004 Middle Eastern Literatures and Their Times https://archive.org/details/middleeasternlit0006moss World Literature and Its Times 6 Gale (publisher) Thomson Gale Detroit 0787637319 Translation by M. Al-Mallah. ar وَتَعظُمُ في عَينِ الصَغيرِ صِغارُها   وَتَصغُرُ في عَينِ العَظيمِ العَظائِمُ Petty affairs appear grave in the eyes of the petty, while grave matters appear petty in the eyes of the great. وَما ضَرَّها خَلقٌ بِغَيرِ مَخالِبٍ *** وَقَد خُلِقَت أَسيافُهُ وَالقَوائِمُ Had these birds been created without claws, it would not have harmed them, for the blades and hilts of his swords [provide carrion] for them. أعزُّ مكانٍ في الدُّنى سرجُ سابحٍ***وخيرُ جليسٍ في الزمانِ كتابُ A charger's saddle is an exalted throne, the best companions are books alone. Arabic text: Misattributed ar قَوْمٌ إذا مس النعال وجوههم   شكت النعال بأي ذنب تُصْفَعُ A people, when the shoes touch their faces, / The shoes complain: “For what sin are we struck?” Commonly attributed to Al-Mutanabbi, no known occurrence in Mutanabbi's writings. The earliest known occurrence of this quote is in Ibn Taghribirdi's Al-Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira, where it was not attributed to anyone.https://www.alriyadh.com/1546174 Quotes about Al-Mutanabbi I am embarrassed that I have a translator for my works, and Mutanabbi, the poet of the Arabs, has no one. Rasha al-Ameer, In other words: Why is Mutanabbi so rarely translated into English?, Egypt Independent (May 22, 2012) Poetry has sunk into the earth, and the lush tree of letters, once watered, has gone dry. Written about Mutanabbi's death by his student Ibn Jinni. See also Al-Ma'arri Abu Nuwas Abu Tammam References External links Category:10th century births Category:10th century deaths Category:Arabic poets