Around the silences which are in me.


CIX

The shadows come, and they will come to bless
Their brother and his dwelling and his fame,
When I shall soil no more with any blame
Or any praise the silence I possess.



APPENDIX

ON THE NAME ABU'L-ALA

Arab names have always been a stumbling-block, and centuries ago
there was a treatise written which was called "The Tearing of the
Veil from before Names and Patronymics." Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Jarit
al-Misri is a fair example of the nomenclature; here we have the
patronymic (Abu Bakr--father of Bakr), the personal name (Ahmad),
the surname (ibn Jarit--son of Jarit), and the ethnic name
(al-Misri--native of Egypt). In addition, they made use of fancy
names if they were poets (such as Ssorrdorr, the sack of pearls,
who died in the year 1072), names connoting kindred, habitation
(such as Ahmad al-Maidani, the great collector of proverbs, who
lived near the Maidan, the race-course of Naisapur), faith or
trade or personal defects (such as a caliph who was called the
father of flies, since on account of his offensive breath no fly
would rest upon his lip), and finally they gave each other names