FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION
Search the corpus.
Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.
37 matching pages
Page 1 of 21910 · PDF PAGE 113
…. Bedawin — any wanderers. But the home- less necessarily live by robbery. Hence the para- doxes of Socialism. 3. Lit. sharp as [Persian text] zu’l faqar, the sword of Mohammed which he captured on the field of Badr. A sort of Eastern Excalibur, by the usual mythopoetic process. 4. I confess to fantastic license in translation of this curious passage. But some of the words are not Persian or anything else, and two or three seemed me formed in this manner. For example, I have translated [Persian text] “ Allah knows ” rea- sonably enough ; and [P…
1910 · PDF PAGE 47
…I am alone responsible for these capital summaries ; but a well known lady mystic in Lon- don assures me that they are just. 2. [Persian text] satirist, not to be confused with [Persian text] pilgrim. 3. El Qahar — The Conqueror — Abdullah’s ‘ Takhallus ’ or cognomen qua poeta. 4. Common symbols for member and po- dex. See Burton, Priapeia. 5. Not the common cowrie, which would be more probably taken as an emblem of pudendum mulie- bre. [Persian text] is the pearl-oyster shell ; [Per- sian text] the cowrie, here the text reads [Persian text] sh…
1910 · PDF PAGE 54
46 The Innocence and Reputation of Man. za) on your face ? In order to stick a Ghazi to your bottom ! ” 3. Black-violet : so in text [Persian text]. A black mole, in Sufi cipher, means the “ point of in- divisible unity.” But El Haji more scandalously and obviously chooses the podex itself throughout most of his masterpiece. 4. Friday. This appears at first sight an obvious misreading. But (if you please) Mahbub says : “ When a boy opens his podex, the hairs depart one from another like true believers quitting the mosque on Friday. [Persian tex…
1910 · PDF PAGE 69
…omb, often risking their lives in the attempt. Frequent is the pun between Omar and Hhumar “ ass.” They are spelt nearly alike ([Persian text] and [Persian text]) and Persian pronunciation always slurs the difference between “ ma’ajub ” and “ ma’aruf ” o and u. 4. Whose ? Presumably the Nubian’s ; but the text is ambiguous. 5. A pun [Persian text] means both “ rock ” and a jinn who offended King Solomon. The latter (as usual) imprisoned him in a brass globe and threw him into the sea. 6. All this is so much the more insulting as the woman and t…
1910 · PDF PAGE 122
…f course against those who think that the difficulty of self-created matter is overcome by postulating a self-created God. Thus [Persian text] Jade might become [Persian text] a maker of Jade, were only Jade a verbal root. As [Persian text] slayer from the root [Persian text] to slay. 5. The Takhallus being absent from this Ghazal, it is either spurious or unfinished ; or else affords us a ground for rejecting those Ghazals which but for the Takhallus would be declared not to be au- thentic. This latter view has guided us to some extent in this…
1910 · PDF PAGE 65
…, and faithful, if thou canst be faithful. The camel that hath learnt to bite furiously8 — only Allah and the muzzle9 avail. 1. [Persian text] : Hakim — doctor, not to be confused with [Persian text] Hakim — official. 2. Wolf’s Tail — the false dawn or Zodiacal Light. 3. One M.S. omits the sentence, and finishes the previous couplet “ O flabby and withered lips ! ” ([Persian text]) lit. “ lips of one who fasts.” 4. Probably a pun [Persian text] to kiss [Persian text] rotten. 5. Reputed aphrodisiacs. In reality of little more use than the boaste…
1910 · PDF PAGE 156
…unpronounceable Name of God, concealed by its obviousness. The 100th name, about which people make such a fuss, is simply Allah [Persian text] itself, the other 99 merely replacing Allah in the sentence Hua Allahu alazi wailaha illa Hua, thus : Hua Arrahmanu alazi etc., and so for the rest. How [Persian text] came to mean God ([Per- sian text] the God) is a question for the profoundest scholarship ; but we note that [Persian text] has the numerical value of 66, and that 66 is the sum of the first 12 numbers, beginning, as Orientals do begin in …
1910 · PDF PAGE 157
… lies the best hope of a perfect recovery of the perfect Way. A. L. One is sorry to have to object that the Arabic Hua is spelt [Persian text] not [Persian text] and equals 11, not 12. The number 11 however does represent the squaring of the circle, the Great Work, since there are 11 letters in Abrahadabra, whose symbolism is so enigmatical : [Persian text] is further the equation of [Persian text] 5 the Pen- tagram and [Persian text] 6 the Hexagram, Micro and Macro-prosopus, Man and God. 17. This is the extreme sceptico-mystical posi- tion : t…
1910 · PDF PAGE 90
… thy podex is ca- pable of severe combat ; for not until the dawn breaks will El Qahar withdraw his member. 1. So our best M.S. [Persian text] But [Persian text] flesh — meaning buttocks — sounds more likely. Consideration of prosody support the text. 2. Meteor-struck : meteors are the stones flung by the angels at the Jinn who pry into Heaven. This epithet confirms our view of the allegory. 3. Eunuchs. Those from whom the testicles only are removed can still copulate, and experience sexual orgasm, though of course no fecundation results. Hence…
1910 · PDF PAGE 160
…rafel — of the last Judgement, bear respectively a sword and a trum- pet. We have taken Azrael though modern Per- sians usually (Not the text here. Ed.) call him Abu Yahya [Persian text] “ Father John.” Some ignorant Persians confuse him with Ezekiel ! Result : “ to sup with Father John ” means either to eat dirt, i.e. (apologize) or “ to die.” Hence an offended Persian in a tavern brawl, may “ You must sup with Father John to-night ” meaning “ Retract, or I knife you.” 3. Venus-throw — the double six. The highest throw at dice. 4. Ghoul — a co…
1910 · PDF PAGE 141
…asp this sorry scheme of things entire, Would we not shatter it to bits, and then Remould it nearer to the heart’s desire. ” 2. [Persian text] huqqah. It is said that this word represents heiroglyphically the process of smoking. [Persian text] the harsh aspirate changed to [Persian text] the smooth aspirate by the me- dium of the force of [Persian text] which Arab mys- tics describe as being “ of a watery, lunar nature, and consonant to dogs, jackals, beetles, pools, old women painted, dreams, water pots, drunkenness, illusion, broken spears, a…
1910 · PDF PAGE 59
…o perceive Reality. 51 Buddhist and by no means a Mohammedan doc- trine. I am a little uncertain of my transla- tion. Literally [Persian text]. The wheel of life stands still, the axis is rusty. (This line, pencilled faintly in Major Lutiy’s M.S. has been difficult to decipher : we doubt the accuracy of the above. It is not an M.S. reading. Ed.) 2. Cf. Verlaine — c’est à recommencer. But “ be- ginning ” is here “ maruk ” [Persian text] not “ rah- sid ” ; and Mahbub says that here is a punning ref- erence to Marut [Persian text] (any connection …
1910 · PDF PAGE 107
…nd immi- nent design !7 1. God — not Noah. But the grape here means the physical basis of Ecstasy. 2. The word used here is not [Persian text] but [Persian text] the square root (arithmetic). Possibly a pun with the word [Persian text] jazbat, which I have translated “ charm.” However there is (ac- cording to Mahbub) a mystic truth con- cealed. Arithmetic like all sciences was at one time considered magical by the vulgar ; to this day the “ magic squares ” of numbers of which the simplest cast is : 492 357 816 are attributed to the planets, and…
1910 · PDF PAGE 110
…rminology. Ed. 4. Goathair — the “ pashmina ” of Kashmir ; so says Mahbub the Kashmiri ; but I suspect him of patriotism and believe the text to read ‘ pustin ’ [Persian text] a fur peliise spread out as a quilt. (Of course one may cavil at “ quilt ”, which im- plies quilting, not any rug qua rug. But a wounded buffalo is a very mild animal compared to a trans- lator in trouble with his monorhyme, so that we had perhaps better say nothing. Ed.) 5. This perhaps refers to a posture of coition described in the other “ Scented Garden.” The lady is …
1910 · PDF PAGE 73
…“ You cannot attract a live man ”, and she will assuredly have you murdered sooner or later if she can. 6. A proverb and a pun, [Persian text] denial, [Persian text] splendour.
1910 · PDF PAGE 115
… is wrapped nothing but God.” He was stoned by more orthodox Arabs, and his blood traced “ An’ el Haqq ” on the ground. 11. Gem [Persian text] Guhr. The Fable of the Cock and the Dunghill probably sprang from so childish a source as the pun between Guhr and Guh [Persian text] (dung). It is more obvious in the oblique Guh-ra and Guhr-ra. 12. The last three verses are probably spu- rious. Verse 11 supplies a natural end, with the takhallus. A. L. (It will be observed that some of these notes are redundant. We have not altered or cut any of Ma- jo…
1910 · PDF PAGE 49
…n my bell thy clapper ; wake The cosmic echo in my blood ! For El Qahar thy beauty broods, Of thy perfections chews the cud. 1. [Persian text] Suli, an impaling stake. A rare word of Sanskrit origin. 2. Chokmah, the “ emanation ” referred to the Sphere of the Stars. 3. Geburah. Curiously reminiscent of Cazotte’s conception of Asmodai. There may be a pun be- tween [Persian text] camel or distortions of them. One may consult the descriptions of the 72 evil spirits of the Goetia, or the following actual results of the clairvoyance of a well known …
1910 · PDF PAGE 84
… as Sar, sir, sieur, Caesar, Sarah, Kaiser, Tsar, Shah, sirdar, sirkar, sire, signor, señor, siegneur, and a host of others. 2. [Persian text] the temple at Mecca. But I think here it means the House not made with hands. The letter [Persian text] itself (not [Persian text] but the Hebrew ב. Ed.) means house, and connotes (says Mahbub) a great Magus — “ The Magus of Power.” The passage means therefore that mystic Union is the key to Practical Magic. 3. This sort of individualization of ideas is common in Eastern literature. We had a bad attack o…
1910 · PDF PAGE 78
70 The Shame of the Prodigal. derous Moor, who slays his guest with felon blow ? ” 5. Ass of the member of honey [Persian text]. So Mahbub’s expansion of the “ portmanteau ” text [Persian text] Khazk’asal. 6. Refers to a fable. An elephant had fallen into a pit, but managed to scramble out. Seeing an ass going in that direction, he kindly warned him. The ass disdainfully replied that he, being light, ran little danger. Ay ! said the elephant, but small and without an hand, how will thou escape if thou dost fall ? And in fact the ass fell, and p…
1910 · PDF PAGE 53
…re ” and “ Cathay ” and so on without the smallest fact to guide them. Yet there is a certain consistency in the conception. 2. [Persian text] Ghazi warrior ; sometimes used only of one who has slain an infidel. A common piece of mild chaff to a harlot (male or female) is : “ Why have you stuck rouge ([Persian text] Gha-