this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2025
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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As the (likely apocryphal, unfortunately) story goes: Abbasid Caliph Harun Al-Rashid had announced that if anyone brought him a poem he hadn't heard before, he'd give him the weight of whatever he wrote it on in gold. Of course there's no way he'd actually do that; as the story goes Harun Al-Rashid was able to memorize any poem after hearing it once and had a male slave who was able to memorize one after hearing it twice and a female slave who was able to memorize one after hearing it thrice. As you probably guessed, whenever a poet brought him a new poem he'd listen and just recite it back at them, bring the male slave (who at this point heard it twice) to recite it and after that have the female slave recite it, after which he'd say "see? I've heard it before" and send them back with no gold. Al-Asma'i, a prominent poet, was sure that there was a trick to it, and wrote a poem that uses strange, rare meanings and sounds such that it'd be impossible to memorize in one hearing. The opening and title of the poem is "sautu safiri lbulbuli", meaning "the sound of the bulbul's (a type of songbird) whistling".

Al-Asma'i then disguised himself as a nomad Arab and wore a face mask (as he was known to the Caliph) and hit Harun Al-Rashid with the poem, which he failed to memorize and so was unable to recite. Because of that neither of his slaves could recite it and Al-Asma'i demanded his reward, so Harun Al-Rashid asked what he wrote the poem on and Al-Asma'i replied "I carved it into a ceramic pillar I inherited from my father. The pillar is on my camel carried by ten soldiers outside". Then Harun Al-Rashid's minister says "this has to be Al-Asma'i", and he's ordered to take off his face mask. Well the funny part is over, but the rest of the story says that Al-Asma'i gives back the money he took but in return Harun Al-Rashid would hold his promise with the other poets.

As y'all probably noticed the story is full of holes, but hey, a man can dream.

Here's an English translationThe sound of whistling bulbul

Excited my tipsy heart

Water and roses coming together

With the flowers of the glance of her black eyes

And you, my dear sir

My master and my lord

Oh, how I have wished for

A ruby-cheeked fawn

One that I plucked from a cheek

Having kissed it until shyness turned it pink

And she said: No, no, no, no

And ran away

And the pretty woman swooned over

Because of what this man had done

And she shouted in surprise

Oh my, oh dear, oh dear me

And I said, don’t you shout

Show me the pearls

That’s when she told him

Get up and get the drinks

And a group of servants who offered me

A wine that tastes like honey

I smelled it with my nose

More fragrant than cloves

In the midst of a beautiful garden

Full of flowers and filling me with joy

And the approaching flute going drin, drin

And the drum going pa rum pum pum

Rum pum pum, rum pum pum

Rum pum pum, rum pum pum

And the roof* making a sak-sak sound

And I enjoyed the dancing

Come on, come on, come on

Come on, come on, come on

And grilled meat, fit for a king

On papers made of quince tree leaves

And the turtle dove sang

More and more

If you only you’ve seen me riding

A scrawny donkey

Walking on three legs

Like a limping man

And people were throwing

Pots at my camel in the market

And everyone was scaring me

Behind me and around me

But I walked on and fled

Afraid of getting killed

To meet a king

Dignified and sublime

Who ordered a gift of clothing for me

Red like blood

I drag it behind me as I walk

Proud of its long tail

I’m the brilliant poet

From a neighborhood in Mosul

I’ve composed adorned pieces of poetry

Unattainable for other poets

I say at the start of it:

The sound of whistling bulbul

Come on, come on, come on

and a link in case anyone wants to listen to it.

*The translation I found says this and while it's probably wrong I actually have no idea what it's supposed to be. I think it's a musical instrument of some sort.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

You know it's a fairy tale because the monarch was not angry and spiteful after being uncovered to have cheated.

But that's a nice meme and story, thanks for sharing.