Original Arabic Text

Metre: Tavîl (fa‘ûlun mefâ‘îlun fa‘ûlun mefâ‘ilun)

فَوَدّعَ قَتْلاهُمْ وَشَيّعَ فَلَّهُمْ
بضَرْبٍ حُزُونُ البَيضِ فيهِ سُهولُ

Fe-vedda‘a ḳatlāhum ve şeyya‘a fellehum
Bi-ḍarbin ḥuzūnu'l-bayḍi fīhi suhūlu

على قَلْبِ قُسْطَنْطينَ مِنْهُ تَعَجّبٌ
وَإنْ كانَ في ساقَيْهِ مِنْهُ كُبُولُ

‘Alā ḳalbi Ḳusṭanṭīne minhu te‘accubun
Ve in kāne fī sāḳayhi minhu kubūlu

لَعَلّكَ يَوْماً يا دُمُسْتُقُ عَائِدٌ
فَكَمْ هارِبٍ مِمّا إلَيْهِ يَؤولُ

Le‘alleke yevmen yā Dumustuḳu ‘ā'idun
Fe-kem hāribin mimmā ileyhi ye'ūlu

In English

1. (Sayf al-Dawla) bade farewell to the enemy's dead and saw their routed fugitives on their way with such blows that the bumps and ridges of the helmets were levelled into plains.

2. In Konstantin's heart there is wonder at him, even though the fetters on his legs are of his making.

3. O Domestikos, perhaps one day you too will return; many a fugitive comes back in the end to the very thing he fled.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These three couplets (beyit) are taken from the long kaside (qasida) that al-Mutanabbi wrote for Sayf al-Dawla, opening with the line "Leyâlî ba‘de'z-zâ‘inîn şükûlü" (after those who departed, my nights are all alike). The kaside is written in the tavîl metre of Arabic prosody and rhymes on the letter "lâm"; for this reason it can be called, after its rhyme letter, the "Lamiyya". The three couplets follow one another in the kaside and describe the end of the battle in which the emir routed the Byzantine army. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar quotes the first two couplets in Amasya Tarihi, and then the third, while narrating Sayf al-Dawla's siege of Harşene and the capture of the Byzantine commander's son; the footnotes of the edition give a Turkish translation of the couplets. Because the text layer of the e-book is corrupt, the Arabic-script text is given from the common text of the divan; the identification of the metre and the Latin-script reading are ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the first couplet the verbs "veddaa" (bade farewell) and "şeyyaa" (saw off, escorted) are courteous words, like a host seeing off a guest; by using them for enemies killed and fleeing in battle, the poet builds a bitter irony. The violence of the blows is conveyed through hyperbole: the crests and bumps ("huzûn") of the helmets turn into plains ("suhûl"). The contrast between ridge and plain is a fine example of the figure of antithesis that Arabic poetry calls tıbâk.

The second couplet describes the young Konstantin who fell captive. The poet says that there is wonder at the emir in his heart, even though the chains on his feet were put there by the emir. That even the enemy admires the one who defeated him is presented as the highest form of praise. The third couplet addresses Konstantin's father, the fleeing Byzantine commander-in-chief, the Domestikos, and ends with a maxim: a man returns in the end to what he fled. The line is at once a threat, since if the Domestikos comes to battle again he will meet the same end, and one of those pithy lines passing into proverb that al-Mutanabbi often turned to.

Historical Context

Hüsameddin links these couplets to his narrative in which, in 342, Sayf al-Dawla besieged Harşene, in his view the castle of Amasya, and in which Konstantin, son of the Domestikos, was among those who asked for quarter from the castle. Present-day histories record that Constantine, youngest son of the Byzantine commander-in-chief Bardas Phokas, fell captive to the Hamdanids in 953 in the battle near Marash. The year 342 given by Hüsameddin corresponds to this date, but the place differs. The kaside from which the couplets are taken also draws a clear picture in terms of place names: it mentions Malatya, the river Qubaqib, the Euphrates, Hanzit, Simnin, Hisn al-Ran, Sumaysat (Samosata) and Marash, and does not mention Harşene or Amasya. Konstantin's captivity thus appears as an event that took place far from Amasya, in the region between the Euphrates and Marash. The debate is discussed in detail on the poet's biography page.

Bibliography

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