Leg over Leg: Volumes Three and Four (Library of Arabic Literature) by Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq

Author:Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq [al-Shidyaq, Ahmad Faris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Library of Arabic Literature
Published: 2015-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

4.12.1

After the Fāriyāqiyyah had stayed a while in the land of the peasants, where there was no solace for the stranger and nothing pleasant but the greenery, her patience wore thin, her heart became oppressed, and she was overcome by ennui and anxiety. One day, she said to her husband, “How strange is this world and its ways, the strangest thing in it being this rational beast that walks upon its surface! How strange that no matter how many nights and days pass over him, his desires delude him, while his hopes beguile and distract him in vain, and no matter how hard he runs to catch up with them, they stay ahead of him and keep the same distance from him as his shadow! Each day he believes that he is smarter than he was the day before and that the next day will be better than this. I used to think, when we were on the island, that the English were the happiest of people and enjoyed the greatest peace of mind. But when we came to their country and lived among them, lo and behold, their peasants turned out to be the most wretched of God’s creatures. Look at the inhabitants of the villages around us and scrutinize them well and you will see that they are no different from savages. A peasant of theirs sets off in the morning to toil and travail, then returns to his house in the evening without having seen any other human being and without any having seen him. At night he lies down to sleep and the next day he gets up early to more of the same, and so it continues. He is like a machine that turns at an even pace: it has neither gain nor pleasure in its turning nor rest when it comes to a stop, for when Sunday—the day for joy and recreation in all parts of the world—comes, the only pleasure the peasant may enjoy is to go to church, where he sits for a couple of hours like a booby, yawning for an hour and sleeping for the rest; then he goes home. They have no places of entertainment or spots where they can pass the evening in conversation and good cheer.

4.12.2

“Nor is the life of the better-off in the countryside any better than that of the peasants, because the only dishes they know are roast meat and those turnips449 that are everywhere. But where, in fact, are the better-off in the villages? The only rich people you see are the priest and the stewards who look after the farms and fields on behalf of their owners. They too are no different from the peasants. Despite this, if you enter the palaces of their kings and make a tour of the markets in their cities and see with your own eyes the amazing products, marvelous works of art, stylish machines, valuable stuffs, luxurious clothes, and well-made vessels that are there, especially in London,

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