Outside & Subterranean Poems, a Mini-Anthology in Progress (56): Some Quatrains from Sidi Abderrahman el Mejdub (Al Jadida, early 16C. –Meknes 1568)

     Translation from Arabic by Abdelfetah Chenni & Pierre Joris

[As originally published in Joris & Tengour, Poems for the Millennium, volume 4: The University of California Book of North African Literature, 2012]

dirty and ugly they saw me       there goes an empty head they said
in fact I am more like an open book       there’s much useful stuff

     inside this head

*

o my heart I burn you        and if you want I will do more

o my heart you shame me         because you like who doesn't

     like you.

*

neither think nor search too much         don’t always be

     despondent

the planets are not fixed                and life’s not eternal

*

don't play with your best friend's feelings         & if people insult

     him, ease his mind

who loves you, love him more      but if he betrays you, don't ever
     be his friend again

*

all I’ve had in life is one goat          but I’ve written beautiful
     quatrains
many are fulfilled through God’s favor     yet claim those favors as

     their own labors

*

travel and you’ll get to know people      and owe obedience to the 

     noble

the fathead with the pot-belly      sell him for a dime

*

my heart’s between a hammer & an anvil          & that damned
     blacksmith has no pity

he keeps hammering & when it cools         he kindles the fire

     with his bellows
 

*

my weak heart can’t bear any pain      and by God you are
     barbarians
you supported me when I was strong          and let me down
     when I grew weak

*

o you who sows the good grain by grain     o you who sows
     the bad lot by lot
the good multiplies and rises       the bad withers and wastes 
     away

*

don’t think of this time’s tightness       see how wide time is
     in God
difficulties wipe out the weak      but men wipe out difficulties

*

I suggest to you devourer of sheep heads          throw those
     bones in a well

laugh & play with the people         but before all shut your

     mouth

*

silence is abundant gold      and words destroy good
     ambiance

say nothing if you see something        and if they ask say
     no, no

*

o friend, be patient          hide your burden

sleep naked on thorns         wait for a brighter day

*

the good old days are gone        hard ones are here

who dares speak the truth            will have his head cut off

*

don’t get in the saddle before you bridle          and tie strong
     knots

think twice before you speak        or you’ll live to regret it

*

I made snow into a bed              & covered myself with the wind
I made the moon into a lamp               & went to sleep in the

     starry night

*

misery should be hidden away                & covered under a veil

cover the wound with the skin                 & the wound will soon heal

COMMENTARY

[Writes Pierre Joris in summary]: Sidi Abderrahman el Mejdub (also transcribed as Majdoub,) was a Moroccan sufi poet, whose poems or at least stanzas thereof have become part of popular culture throughout the Maghreb, & given rise to a range of proverbs (e.g. "doubt is the beginning of wisdom"). Born (exact date unknown) in Tit Mlil, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean between Al Jadida & Azemmour, he lived during the rise of the Saadi dynasty under the reign of Mohammed ash-Sheikh and Abdallah al-Ghalib & died in 1568 in Merdacha, Jebel Aouf. His tomb, which attracts many visitors even today, is in Meknes. The surname — El Mejdub — refers to someone who is  illuminated, mad, enraptured; the “jdub” was the dancer who led the dancers of ecstatic sufi brotherhoods into the “jedba,” i.e. the dance that resulted in trance. If someone stays in this trance state his whole life, he is called a “mejdub.” The French scholar Alfred-Louis De Prémare wrote in his 1988 book La tradition orale du Mejdub: "Epileptic kid, or young man surprised by the irruption of mystic ecstasy?  Exalted Malâmati secretly affiliated to an active politico-religious grouping, or respectable sheikh of a rural zaouïa? Miserable trouble-maker from El Qsar or missionary preacher of a sufi current in full expansion? Holy man or con man?  Popular bard or composer inspired by a dhikr? Sidi Aberrahman was doubtlessly all of the above at different points of his life… or was these according to how he was judged, or recuperated. At any rate, this kind of personage is deeply rooted in the Moroccan landscape,  in its social ramification, in its mental environs.”