Translator's Note

Whereas Kushājim’s contemporary al-Mutanabbī has received considerable attention from modern English-speaking scholars – cementing genres like madīḥ (panegyrics) and malāḥim (epic war poetry) in classical Arabic literary studies – Kushājim’s unique and equally-influential poems are yet to be translated into English. Though a poet of considerable range, Kushājim is best known as a pioneer of maqtuʻāt al-waṣf (ekphrastic epigrams): short yet highly-complex monothematic poems on carnal and earthly topics. In his poems, Kushājim vividly chronicles culinary, social, and intellectual aspects of court life under the Hamdanid dynasty (944 – 1002), detailing numerous native and exotic foodstuffs and recipes; the social etiquettes of sharing wine and food; the various musical instruments used at the time to entertain the caliphs and their guests; the harem with its cross-dressing male and female dancers, concubines, and odalisques; the wide variety of plants and geometric designs found in courtly gardens; indoor pastimes and outdoor sports; the art of gift-giving; and the traits of coveted courtiers and boon companions.

I have carefully selected the four poems at hand both for their aesthetic grace and sensuous intensity. Each of the four monothematic poems presents hyper-realistic sensory depictions of a particular foodstuff, be it a vegetable (“On Asparagus”), dessert (“On Mushabbak” and “On Khushkanānaj”), or fruit (“On Pomegranates”). In his gastronomic poems, Kushājim not only details the preparation methods and ingredients needed for certain dishes but also the impact that their elegant presentation has on the banquet guests. Mouths water and eager hands cannot keep their distance; even “[a] sedulous ascetic would break his fast / and yield before such a repast.” Kushājim’s writing is never short of striking, fascinating metaphors to describe the appearance of the different foods, comparing the crimson asparagus tips to “a tinted cheek flushed / by an irritated hand / Or a hand turned red / in a silver bowl filled with ice,” baked Khushkanānaj to “crescents / rising in timely succession before sunrise,” and pomegranate seeds to “glistening rubies safely casketed / in an ivoried jewelry box.”

Although the original poems were written in accordance with the fixed feet and rhyme schemes often used in classical Arabic poetry, I have chosen to prioritize aesthetic grace and readability over meter without completely eliminating musicality. In Arabic, Kushājim wrote “On Asparagus” and “On Mushabbak” in rajaz meter, where the musicality is abrupt, supposedly mimicking the kind of laboured convulsions a camel makes when it wants to rise, and where the endings of all hemistiches (half lines) and verses rhyme; while “On Khushkanānaj” and “On Pomegranates” were written in the simpler khafīf and munsariḥ meters respectively, where the musicality is ‘light,’ ‘smooth-flowing,’ and where only the ending of each verse rhymes. For instance, in “On Asparagus” (in rajaz), Kushājim writes

كَانَتْ فُصُوصًا لِخَواتِيْمِ الْخُرَدْ            مِنْ فَوْقِهَا مَزْىٌ عَلَيْهَا يَطَّرِدْ

يَجُولُ فِي جَانِبِهَا جَزْرٌ وَمَدْ            مَكْسُوَّةً مِنْ زَيْتِهَا ثَوْبَ زَبَدْ

كَأَنَّهُ مِنْ فَوْقِهِ حِيْنَ لَبَدْ            شِرَاكُ تِبْرٍ أَوْ لُجَيْنٍ قَدْ مَسَدْ

فَلَوْ رَآهَا عَابِدٌ أَوْ مُجْتَهِدْ            أَفْطَرَ مِمَّا يَشْتَهِيْهَا وَسَجَدْ

This transliteration of the verses above gives a sense of their musicality, for those who do not read Arabic:

Kānat fuṣūṣan likhawātīm alkhurad            Min fawqihā maziun ʻalaihā yaṭarid

Yajūlu fi jānibiha jazrun wa mad              Maksuwatun min zaitihā thawab Zabad

Ka’annahu min fawqihi ḥīna labad            Shirāku tabarin ’aw lujainin qad masad

Falaw ra’āhā ʻābidun ’aw mujtahid            ’Aftara mimmā yashtahīhā wa sajad

Where the musicality of these lines is arguably impossible to relay exactly as is in English translation while still conserving the semantic and metaphoric aspects of the poem, I have chosen to render the translation in free verse with an irregular rhyme scheme to recreate Kushājim’s verse in English translation in a way that is still both graceful and euphonious.

They are dressed with an oily relish
     that ebbs and tides like seafoam
When drizzled onto the stalks
     like nets of cast silver and gold
And pearl rings with gemstones adorned,
     adding beauty to their beauteous form.
A sedulous ascetic would break his fast
     and yield before such a repast.

Thanks to the freedoms found in free verse translation, I was able to offer an honest translation of the source text that is true to all the meanings and metaphors used, at the expense of trying to relay the exact musicality of the Arabic text in English translation.

It is also worthy of note that Kushājim’s “On Asparagus” has particular historical significance. In Muruj al-Dahab wa Ma’adin al-Jawhar (Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), the Arab historian and polymath ’Alī ibn al-Ḥussain ibn ’Alī al-Masʻūdī (c. 896 – 956) documented in detail how the poem was received by a 10^th century Abbasid caliph during a courtly banquet. One day, the anecdote goes, the ruler of Baghdad held a lavish banquet where men of letters vied to present their best verse and prose on food and drink. The ruler, Al-Mustakfī bi’llāh, immediately fell in love with a poem by Kushājim – recited by one of the attendees – on asparagus. After hearing it, he eagerly said: “We do not have any [foodstuffs] of this description in this country, and we shall request that Muhammad ibn Tughj al-’Ikhshīd brings us some of this delight from Damascus,” (al-Masʻūdī, p. 292, my translation). This is but one of many historical records that show the far-reaching influence of Kushājim’s gastronomic poems on court life and culinary choices in the Abbasid era and beyond.

Works Cited

al-Masʻūdī, ’Abū al-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn al-Ḥussain ibn ʻAlī. Murūj al-dhahab wa-maʻādin al-jawhar. [Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems], IV, edited by Kamāl Hassan Marʻī, al-Maktaba al-ʻAsriyyah, 2005.

Salma Harland

In the Classroom

Gastronomic Diversion: Write an ode to your favorite food in the style of Salma Harland’s translations of Kushājim’s Gastronomic poems. Specifically, imagine which foods connect you to a sense of tradition, family, heritage, religion, history. Some questions to consider along the way:

Bonus points if you make the dish(es) fresh and include photos!