This quote from Muhsin Mahdi really encapsulates much of what I've been collecting and alluding to here, the insistence that somewhere out there must be a 1001 Nights, the real version.
"There is widespread resistance to raising and attempting to answer questions such as the following: What is the Nights? How and in what form have the stories survived? In what sense do they form a book? It is human to search for the completion and the end of every affair and to think that one can know the end from knowing the beginning. It is also human to fail to recognize that some things have no known beginning and may not have a knowable end. The desire to know the beginning is thus satisfied by inventing it, and the desire to know the end is satisfied by fabricating it. Such, in any case, have been the human failings from which the Nights has suffered most."
from The Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa-Layla): From the Earliest Known Sources: Part 3 Introduction and Indexes. Leiden, EJ Brill, 1994.
Showing posts with label muhsin mahdi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label muhsin mahdi. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Mahdi, Haddawy & Burton Compared II
These quotes are from the Fisherman/Jinni/Ensorcelled Prince series of stories:
Note on the Arabic: Several words are misspelled because of the original manuscript but I’ve copied them as they are in Mahdi’s manuscript (ie tuma instead of thuma and no dots below the ya, etc.).
Note Burton’s description of the Prince’s lover and its crudeness, which is nowhere near the same in Mahdi or in Haddawy (although the latter two are different, Haddawy translates as “black man” the Arabic for “black slave”). I’ll have to take a look at some more Arabic texts in order to get a better idea for how far off base Burton took his translation.
Fisherman and the Jinni
Burton – “Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his feet; and, following the sound, found a curtain let down over a chamber-door. He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting upon a couch about a cubit above the ground; and he fair to the sight, a well shaped wight, with eloquence dight; his forehead was flower-white, his cheek rosy bright, and a mole on his cheek-breadth like an ambergris mite; even as the poet doth indite:” (68)
Haddawy – “When the king heard the lamentation and the verses, he rose and moved toward the source of the voice until he came to a doorway behind a curtain, and when he lifted the curtain, he saw at the upper end of the room a young man sitting on a chair that rose about twenty inches above the floor. He was a handsome young man, with a full figure, clear voice, radiant brow, bright face, downy beard, and ruddy cheeks, graced with a mole like a speck of amber, just as the poet describes it:” (54-5).
Note on the Arabic: Several words are misspelled because of the original manuscript but I’ve copied them as they are in Mahdi’s manuscript (ie tuma instead of thuma and no dots below the ya, etc.).
Note Burton’s description of the Prince’s lover and its crudeness, which is nowhere near the same in Mahdi or in Haddawy (although the latter two are different, Haddawy translates as “black man” the Arabic for “black slave”). I’ll have to take a look at some more Arabic texts in order to get a better idea for how far off base Burton took his translation.
Fisherman and the Jinni
Burton – “Now when the Sultan heard the mournful voice he sprang to his feet; and, following the sound, found a curtain let down over a chamber-door. He raised it and saw behind it a young man sitting upon a couch about a cubit above the ground; and he fair to the sight, a well shaped wight, with eloquence dight; his forehead was flower-white, his cheek rosy bright, and a mole on his cheek-breadth like an ambergris mite; even as the poet doth indite:” (68)
Haddawy – “When the king heard the lamentation and the verses, he rose and moved toward the source of the voice until he came to a doorway behind a curtain, and when he lifted the curtain, he saw at the upper end of the room a young man sitting on a chair that rose about twenty inches above the floor. He was a handsome young man, with a full figure, clear voice, radiant brow, bright face, downy beard, and ruddy cheeks, graced with a mole like a speck of amber, just as the poet describes it:” (54-5).
"فلما سمح الملك الشعر والبكا نهض قايماً وتتبع الصوت وجد ستراً مرخى على باب مجلس, فشاله ونظر وادا فى صدر المجلس صبياً جالس على كرسى مرتفعاً عن الارض مقدار دراع وهو شاباٌ مليح وقداً رجيح ولسان فصيح, بجبين ازهر ووجه اقمر وعدار اخضر وخدٍ احمر وشامه عليه كقرص عنبر, كما قال الشاعر فيها
(Mahdi 113-4)
This description of the ensorcelled prince in Arabic seems best encapsulated here by Burton’s rhyming English adjectives, although it sounds a bit flowery and put on – I think that was the point here. In Haddawy’s version it is much less poetic and more straight forward in its description, which for me loses something of the original’s playfulness.
Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince
The Prince’s servants gossip:
Mahdi – 116
This description of the ensorcelled prince in Arabic seems best encapsulated here by Burton’s rhyming English adjectives, although it sounds a bit flowery and put on – I think that was the point here. In Haddawy’s version it is much less poetic and more straight forward in its description, which for me loses something of the original’s playfulness.
Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince
The Prince’s servants gossip:
Mahdi – 116
"الا تعمل له فى القدح الشرب الدى يبات عليه مرقد وتسقيه له فيرقد ويصير هو والميت سوا, وتخرج تغيب الى الفجر, ولما تاتى تبخر ببخور عند انفه يشمه فيستيقض, فيا خصارت"
Burton - “Nay, more, doth she not drug every night the cup she giveth him to drink before sleep-time, and put Bhang into it? So he sleepeth and wotteth not whither she goeth, nor what she doeth; but we know that after giving him the drugged wine, she donneth her richest raiment and perfumeth herself and then she fareth out from him to be away till break of day; then she cometh to him, and burneth a pastille under his nose and he awaketh from his deathlike sleep.” (70-1).
Haddawy - “No. She places a sleeping potion in the last drink he takes, offers him the cup, and when he drinks it, he sleeps like a dead man. Then she leaves him and stays out till dawn. When she returns, she burns incense under his nose, and when he inhales it, he wakes up. What a pity!” (57)
Here it seems that Burton is way off in his own corner but again it might be that he was using a different source for his translation, although the deliberate archaic language seems strangely incorporated here. Here Haddawy and the Arabic are closer than before.
The Prince’s wife’s lover:
Mahdi – 117
وتسلقت انا سطح القبه واشرفت عليهم وادا ببنت عمى قد وقفت على عبد اسود مبتلى قاعد على قش قصب وهو لابس هدمه وشراميط فقبلت الارض بين يديه
Burton - “Lo! My fair cousin had gone in to a hideous negro slave with his upper lip like the cover of a pot, and his lower like an open pot; lips which might sweep up sand from the gravel-floor of the cot. He was to boot a leper and a paralytic, lying upon a strew of sugar-cane trash and wrapped in an old blanket and the foulest rags and tatters” (71).
Haddawy – “I saw my wife standing before a decrepit black man sitting on reed shavings and dressed in tatters” (57).
Not sure where Burton got this description from but I’d be very interested in finding it. Haddawy forgoes the Arabic “black slave” to settle on “black man” here. She kisses the earth in front of her lover in the Arabic but the English is not quoted here.
The Prince’s wife’s torture:
Mahdi - 121
Haddawy – “I saw my wife standing before a decrepit black man sitting on reed shavings and dressed in tatters” (57).
Not sure where Burton got this description from but I’d be very interested in finding it. Haddawy forgoes the Arabic “black slave” to settle on “black man” here. She kisses the earth in front of her lover in the Arabic but the English is not quoted here.
The Prince’s wife’s torture:
Mahdi - 121
تم انها لم يكفها دلك وما صارت حالتى اليه تم انها تعرينى فى كل يوم وتضربنى بالصوت مايه جلده حتى يسيل دمى وتتهرى اكتافى, تم تلبسنى توب شعر صفه البلاّس على نصفى الفوقانى وتلبسنى هده الاتواب الفاخره من فوق
Burton – “And every day she tortureth me and scougeth me with an hundred stripes, each of which draweth floods of blood and cutteth the skin of my shoulders to strips; and lastly she clotheth my upper half with a hair-cloth and then throweth over them these robes” (77).
Haddawy – “she strips me naked every day and gives me a hundred lashes with the whip until my back is lacerated and begins to bleed. Then she clothes my upper half with a hairshirt like a coarse rug and covers it with these luxurious garments.” (61)
Haddawy – “she strips me naked every day and gives me a hundred lashes with the whip until my back is lacerated and begins to bleed. Then she clothes my upper half with a hairshirt like a coarse rug and covers it with these luxurious garments.” (61)
Comparisons: The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince and the Frame Story
Comparison between:
The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince and the Frame Story
I really like the word ensorcelled by the way, it should be used more often.
Commonalities:
1. Cheating wife with black man who is beneath the wife’s “class” (frame: slave (both Shahriyar and Shahzaman, although sometimes Shahzaman’s wife goes with a cook), Prince: inhabitant of the garbage dump (not clear if he’s a slave but he’s definitely of a “lower” class).
- an aside, I’ve only heard mention of the “issue” of the black man’s role in the Nights once and I can’t remember where, but its treatment was cursory. I’m sure there are articles or books or chapters which deal with the problems inherent in the Nights and their tales for a contemporary audience who may not be as willing to allow the function of the hyper-sexual black slave man character to operate in the same way that audiences of 14th century Cairo might have, or 19th century England for that matter. It’s kind of a troubling matter because this stock figure appears quite often throughout the stories and in fact “his” role is quite important to the functioning of the tales and of the main frame story itself.
2. Tricks by the cuckolded husbands in order to get back at their wives. Frame story: While Shahzaman immediately kills his wife and the cook, Shahriyar waits, Shahriyar and his brother lie and tell Shahriyar’s wife they are going hunting and then sneak back into the palace to see the garden orgy. In the prince story the husband pretends to drink the sleeping potion/bhang drink and runs off after thinking he mortally wounds his wife’s lover instead of revealing what he knows to her (he doesn’t do so for three years!).
3. Stalling of the revenge. In the frame story there seems to be this painfully long stalling of the revenge by Shahriyar, particularly following his brother’s quick and immediate justice to his wife. The Prince story has similar stalling of the action. Both seem to draw out the drama of the tale and seem to function toward the “endlessness” of the Nights themselves.
- Shahriyar first needs to see the infraction for himself in order to mete out his justice. The Prince, likewise, hears the female servants who are fanning him tell of his own wife’s bad behavior and he also needs to know firsthand.
- Also, Shahriyar doesn’t immediately react to his wife’s infidelity, instead him and his brother go off to travel and to see if this feature of painful marriage exists anywhere else in the world (it does, in the first being they encounter). This leads to the side story of the Genie and the lady in the box, etc.
4. Women/wives as instigators. In the frame story Shahriyar’s wife calls Mas’ud down from the trees. Mas’ud is hiding in nature, in the trees. She calls him to commit adultery in her husband’s house. In the Prince story the prince’s wife seeks out her lover in nature/the outskirts of the city/garbage dump (admittedly somewhat different than a tree). The Prince’s wife also brings her lover to the Prince’s castle and also commits adultery in her husband’s house.
5. “Saved” by another man. In the frame story Shahzaman’s depression is saved by his brother’s misfortune (is that a stretch?), Shahriyar is saved by his brother telling him the truth, the two are saved by the genie’s misfortune, can we say that Shahriyar is saved by the Wazir who agrees to his daughter’s marriage to the virgin-killing king? Similarly the Prince is saved by the curious King who, upon hearing the Prince’s version of his predicament, believes him without question and goes and kills the wife’s lover and the wife herself.
6. Magic: The main magic/supernatural feature of the frame story is the genie who keeps the woman in the box on his head. There is also the story of the ox and the donkey and the dog and the rooster, these come a bit later and are told to Sharazad by her father. There is a lot of magic in the Prince story: the magical people who appear when the cooks fry up the fish (an aside – what ever happens to these people who come out of the wall? Their story and their relationship to the fish frying in the pan are tantalizingly unfinished and left hanging unresolved), the seemingly sudden magical powers of the Prince’s wife (how/where does she get these powers from? Why do they appear only after her husband discovers her and her lover and why didn’t she use them earlier to “ensorcel” her husband? Why does she turn the whole town into colored fish?
In any case, just some similarities that I noticed after reading both stories back to back. I’m sure there are others, please feel free to add some of your own.
The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince and the Frame Story
I really like the word ensorcelled by the way, it should be used more often.
Commonalities:
1. Cheating wife with black man who is beneath the wife’s “class” (frame: slave (both Shahriyar and Shahzaman, although sometimes Shahzaman’s wife goes with a cook), Prince: inhabitant of the garbage dump (not clear if he’s a slave but he’s definitely of a “lower” class).
- an aside, I’ve only heard mention of the “issue” of the black man’s role in the Nights once and I can’t remember where, but its treatment was cursory. I’m sure there are articles or books or chapters which deal with the problems inherent in the Nights and their tales for a contemporary audience who may not be as willing to allow the function of the hyper-sexual black slave man character to operate in the same way that audiences of 14th century Cairo might have, or 19th century England for that matter. It’s kind of a troubling matter because this stock figure appears quite often throughout the stories and in fact “his” role is quite important to the functioning of the tales and of the main frame story itself.
2. Tricks by the cuckolded husbands in order to get back at their wives. Frame story: While Shahzaman immediately kills his wife and the cook, Shahriyar waits, Shahriyar and his brother lie and tell Shahriyar’s wife they are going hunting and then sneak back into the palace to see the garden orgy. In the prince story the husband pretends to drink the sleeping potion/bhang drink and runs off after thinking he mortally wounds his wife’s lover instead of revealing what he knows to her (he doesn’t do so for three years!).
3. Stalling of the revenge. In the frame story there seems to be this painfully long stalling of the revenge by Shahriyar, particularly following his brother’s quick and immediate justice to his wife. The Prince story has similar stalling of the action. Both seem to draw out the drama of the tale and seem to function toward the “endlessness” of the Nights themselves.
- Shahriyar first needs to see the infraction for himself in order to mete out his justice. The Prince, likewise, hears the female servants who are fanning him tell of his own wife’s bad behavior and he also needs to know firsthand.
- Also, Shahriyar doesn’t immediately react to his wife’s infidelity, instead him and his brother go off to travel and to see if this feature of painful marriage exists anywhere else in the world (it does, in the first being they encounter). This leads to the side story of the Genie and the lady in the box, etc.
4. Women/wives as instigators. In the frame story Shahriyar’s wife calls Mas’ud down from the trees. Mas’ud is hiding in nature, in the trees. She calls him to commit adultery in her husband’s house. In the Prince story the prince’s wife seeks out her lover in nature/the outskirts of the city/garbage dump (admittedly somewhat different than a tree). The Prince’s wife also brings her lover to the Prince’s castle and also commits adultery in her husband’s house.
5. “Saved” by another man. In the frame story Shahzaman’s depression is saved by his brother’s misfortune (is that a stretch?), Shahriyar is saved by his brother telling him the truth, the two are saved by the genie’s misfortune, can we say that Shahriyar is saved by the Wazir who agrees to his daughter’s marriage to the virgin-killing king? Similarly the Prince is saved by the curious King who, upon hearing the Prince’s version of his predicament, believes him without question and goes and kills the wife’s lover and the wife herself.
6. Magic: The main magic/supernatural feature of the frame story is the genie who keeps the woman in the box on his head. There is also the story of the ox and the donkey and the dog and the rooster, these come a bit later and are told to Sharazad by her father. There is a lot of magic in the Prince story: the magical people who appear when the cooks fry up the fish (an aside – what ever happens to these people who come out of the wall? Their story and their relationship to the fish frying in the pan are tantalizingly unfinished and left hanging unresolved), the seemingly sudden magical powers of the Prince’s wife (how/where does she get these powers from? Why do they appear only after her husband discovers her and her lover and why didn’t she use them earlier to “ensorcel” her husband? Why does she turn the whole town into colored fish?
In any case, just some similarities that I noticed after reading both stories back to back. I’m sure there are others, please feel free to add some of your own.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Comparing Mahdi to Burton and Haddawy
A few interesting comparisons of some key translations and editions of the Nights.
Some quick notes about Mahdi's manuscript/edition: The Wazir kills Shahriyar's wife and future wives.
In Mahdi the Wazir is called:
Some quick notes about Mahdi's manuscript/edition: The Wazir kills Shahriyar's wife and future wives.
In Mahdi the Wazir is called:
ابو جاريتين
Which is translated in Haddawy as "father of the two girls" but which actually (thanks Nadine) means father of the two concubines or servants (much more interesting). It's the first time I heard of the Wazir called anything other than Shahriyar's Wazir. Jariya is an old medieval word and is, according to my sources, no longer in use.
Unfortunately Google's translation (which is horrible in general for a contextually complex language like Arabic into English) of the word as "ongoing" (which would make the Wazir (Sharazad's father) named "Father of Ongoing") is incorrect and there is no word apart from the dual form of the servants/concubines.
Here are some segments of text for consideration, comparing the Arabic of Mahdi's manuscript with Haddawy's and Burton's translations. I'm interested in the way in which the translators (and Burton was using a different version than Haddawy/Mahdi) dealt with rhythm and language. Haddawy says in his introduction that he is not copying the rhymes into English because they would sound bad. I think Burton does a pretty good job of getting close to the Arabic rhythm and playfulness of the text though and Haddawy sounds relatively flat here.
Description of Shahrazad:
In Mahdi's manuscript (p 22):
وكانت الكبيره شهرازاد قد قرات الكتب والمصنفات والحكمه وكتب الطبيات وحفظت الاشعار وطالعت الاخبار وعلمت اقوال الناس وكلام الحكما والملوك, عارفه لبيبه حكيمه اديبه, قد قرت ودرت
“The older daughter, Shahrazad, had read the books of literature, philosophy, and medicine. She knew poetry by heart, had studied historical reports, and was acquainted with the sayings of men and the maxims of sages and kings. She was intelligent, knowledgeable, wise and refined. She had read and learned.” (Haddawy 11)
“Now he had two daughters, Shahrazad and Dunyazad hight, of whom the elder had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by-gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studies philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred.” (Burton 14-5).
“Now he had two daughters, Shahrazad and Dunyazad hight, of whom the elder had perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by-gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studies philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred.” (Burton 14-5).
and the ox and the donkey:
Mahdi p 27 -
ويستعملونى من الليل الى الليل ويطلعوا بى فى الليل الى دار البقر ويلقحوا لى الفول بالطين والتبن بقصله, وابات فى الخرا والبول طول ليلتى, وانت لم تبرح فى كنش ورش ومسح ومعلف نضيف ملان تبن, وانت واقف مستريح وفى النادر حتى يعرض لصاحبنا التاجر حاجه يركبك فيها ويعود على اتره, وانت مستريح وانا تعبان, وانت نايم وانا سهران.
Haddawy – “They work me from nighttime to nighttime, take me back in the dark, offer me beans soiled with mud and hay mixed with chaff, and let me spend the night lying in urine and dung. Meanwhile you rest on well-swept, watered and smoothed ground, with a clean trough full of hay. You stand in comfort, save for the rare occasion when our master rides you to do a brief errand and returns. You are comfortable, while I am weary; you sleep, while I keep awake” (12).
Burton – “They shut me up in the byre and throw me beans and crushed-straw, mixed with dirt and chaff; and I lie in dung and filth and foul stinks through the livelong night. But thou art always lying at ease, save when it happens (and seldom enough!) that the master hath some business, when he mounts thee and rides thee to town and returns with thee forthright. So it happens that I am toiling and distrest while thou takest thine ease and thy rest; thou sleepest while I am sleepless; I hunger still while thou eatest thy fill, and I win contempt while thou winnest good will” (16-7).
Burton – “They shut me up in the byre and throw me beans and crushed-straw, mixed with dirt and chaff; and I lie in dung and filth and foul stinks through the livelong night. But thou art always lying at ease, save when it happens (and seldom enough!) that the master hath some business, when he mounts thee and rides thee to town and returns with thee forthright. So it happens that I am toiling and distrest while thou takest thine ease and thy rest; thou sleepest while I am sleepless; I hunger still while thou eatest thy fill, and I win contempt while thou winnest good will” (16-7).
Thursday, November 13, 2008
mahdi revisited
So Muhsin Mahdi's reconstructed Nights is a reconstruction of the Galland manuscript only, I find out, though the many reviews never seem to mention this, they all point to some reconstruction of an Ur-text.
The only addition he added from other sources is the end of Qamar Al Zaman.
The rest is him fixing up grammar or misspellings or what have you's. And his 3 volume set does a good job at comparing key textual differences. And of course he discovered the branching off of Egyptian and Syrian Ur-texts.
The only addition he added from other sources is the end of Qamar Al Zaman.
The rest is him fixing up grammar or misspellings or what have you's. And his 3 volume set does a good job at comparing key textual differences. And of course he discovered the branching off of Egyptian and Syrian Ur-texts.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Mahdi's Nights
I am doing a small side project on Muhsin Mahdi's 3 volume Alf Layla with critical apparatus for my language requirement.
I understand a few things about it but I'm still really confused on a major point:
What exactly is he doing here with this work? Is it a word-for-word transcription of Galland's manuscript?
Where and why does it differ?
- Yes, he finds the oldest Syrian versions and the oldest Egyptian versions and is making a composite picture of the oldest Syrian version but... how is he doing this?
I examined a page of Mahdi's frame story and it is a word-for-word transcription of the Galland manuscript but I assume that Mahdi's entire Nights is not, so why does he choose to "fill in the blanks" with missing material from other manuscripts and how does he choose which manuscripts to fill in the material with?
I am a bit confused on this point.
I understand a few things about it but I'm still really confused on a major point:
What exactly is he doing here with this work? Is it a word-for-word transcription of Galland's manuscript?
Where and why does it differ?
- Yes, he finds the oldest Syrian versions and the oldest Egyptian versions and is making a composite picture of the oldest Syrian version but... how is he doing this?
I examined a page of Mahdi's frame story and it is a word-for-word transcription of the Galland manuscript but I assume that Mahdi's entire Nights is not, so why does he choose to "fill in the blanks" with missing material from other manuscripts and how does he choose which manuscripts to fill in the material with?
I am a bit confused on this point.
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