فات قطار الزواج (أبو منقبه) أغواه الهوى، واستهلكته المساري، في الغداري ما حد داري، استذرى أنداده، وهو بكرة إلا بعده، وبعدما شِبع غوى، وعزم يخطب؛ ما لقي في قريته بنت حلال، ترشّق قهوته، وتسقيه دواه، وتزهّب غداه وعشاه، وتدفّي شِتاه، وتذراه وتمكّن عُراه. شاور أهل العِرف، فقالوا؛ وش غرّك من عمرك، يوم ما عاد تلقى السفّافه افتكرتْ النُكح؟.
تودّد لأرملة، عاقر، بين بيته وبيتها مدماك صخري، وكلما لمحها تنشر غسيلها، فوق حبل معقود طرف منه في أصياخ البداية؛ والطرف الثاني في وتد بالمدماك، وتمقّل كحلتها المثخّنة؛ دلدل عليها نصّ عمره، وبدع (يا راع الدلع وش تدّلِع به، ويا ليلٍ سرى واشتد لعبه) ومرّة تخزره بعينها، ومرّة ما تلقيه الوجه الراضي، وغيّر القصايد، بقصص بطولاته وغزواته؛ يوم كان في وردة شبابه، وكيف كان يعلّق البندق المنيمس في إبهامه، وأنه كان يضرّط البعارين إذا ركب على الصعب، ردّت عليه «وش ينبغى بالعُمر لا مات أوّله» فاعتزى بنفسه قائلاً (أبو منقبه) وأضاف؛ يفداك من مات أوّله، وأقسم لو يُلزّ بدماغه في رصّ بيتها ليهده، ولو يميل الزافر ليشتال السواري فوق منكبيه؛ فانفرجت أساريرها، وطلبت منه يفلح لأخيها (نكدان) نشدها وين ألقاه؟ قالت؛ هبّاط أسواق؛ مدوّر أرزاق؛ يمشي حافي، ولا يرزاه لا مطر ولا سافي، فقال؛ أبشري بي.
أوّل ما شافه قال (إذا شفته حافي قُل يا كافي) ردّ عليه؛ حافي رِجل شبعان عقل، علّق ؛ ونعم يا الرحيم؛ فالتفت له ونشده؛ منين جيت لي رحيم لا رِحمت، فطلب منه مُلزمة الله، و(نكدان) ما هو دون شيء، ما ينقرب من عرينه؛ ولا ينداس في جرينه ولا يذرّى في مصبّره؛ ساومه على بلاد وزناد؛ وكلما سمع منه طمعة يردّ (ليتك تعوّد حُناشه يا خشب بيتنا) والحافي يرد عليه (ولا يقل للمعاون يا آخ شبيتنا).
يوم عقد القِران؛ طلب منه الفقيه يردد معه «استنكحتها» فما ضبطها؛ وقال؛ «أنكس تحتها» فتضاحكوا وقال رحيمه؛ نكسوك على قُرنتك إلين توصل الماء الصامط، تروّحها على شاة؛ فقال (نكدان) الذي حلّ مع أخته في بيت الرحيم، زد في القرى وادع الجماعة؛ فردّ عليه؛ هوّه ما خذتها وسرّها مصرور، قد فتقه الفاني الله واليها، وصار (نكدان) يتحكّم في المدخال، ويبيع ويشتري في حلال رحيمه، وفي يوم طابت نفسه؛ ووصلت معه كيس التنباك، فقال؛ يا متبلعة الذرعان، انتي ما تقرين في بيتك، كن في خوشك لهايبي، وبطنك كما الركيب المنصلق، ورفع الصوت بالنشيد (وآخوك ركّب بالسواني فوق بيري، ما يعقّل واشغل البير، يدرج على مهله وكن البير بيره) ونشدها؛ بيحيل آخوك عنّي في سعة ربي؛ وإلا صرمت حبلك وحبله! فقالت؛ وتصخاني؟ قال؛ صخيت أمي وآبي قبلك.
انفك منها، ومن أخوها، ولازم الفقيه كم يوم، وفتّح له أنظار، وأعاره الحمار؛ ودلّه على كم بيت في قرى الشاميّة واليمانيّة؛ وأوصاه؛ تهجّر وعلى سعتك، وإذا رزّيت عينك عوّد عليّه؛ وابشر باللي يقضي لزومك، خذ له مرة وافية؛ وسلتت له ثلاثة ورا بعضهم، وكل ما حد بارك له يقول؛ أبشركم معي مخلوقة كما الدجاجة اللي تبيّض وتحضّن وتفرّخ بدون ديك، وإن انسدحت ما قامت؛ وإن قعدت ما تلحلحت، وحليل من قعد في حراها.
دخله الشكك فطلّقها، وخلاها وعيالها في البيت، وانتقل لبيت شقيقته في قبيلة مشرّقة، وعندما نشدته عن حاله؛ أجابها؛ من شاف حالي ما شبرني؛ ولكن ودّي بعروس، معها فلوس وأهلها أهل ناموس، فقالت؛ من حلاتك، وإلا من صومك وصلاتك، وإلا من مرزقك وغلاتك، الله لا يدخِل الكلب المسيد، وأضافت؛ من جرف يا صديقي في دحديره؛ وصدحت (يا خوي عنيت نفسك في حلال تصاليه، دخيلك ارتاح من رعي الغنم والبهامه) فطلب الشاهي، وعمّر الغليون؛ وبدع؛ (يا ساق حيّرتني للمُحقره ولقيتها).
The train of marriage (Abu Mankabah) passed by, seduced by desire, consumed by the paths, in the glories of which no one knew, he disregarded his peers, and he was only a morning away from it. After he had satisfied his cravings and decided to propose; he found no virtuous girl in his village, to serve him coffee, to give him his medicine, to adorn his mornings and evenings, to warm his winters, and to comfort him and strengthen his ties. He consulted the people of wisdom, and they said; “What has deceived you about your age, when you will no longer find the matchmaker thinking about marriage?”
He became fond of a widow, barren, with a rocky wall between his house and hers, and whenever he saw her hanging her laundry on a rope tied at one end to the beginning poles; and the other end to a stake in the wall, he admired her dark eyes; he was drawn to her, a text of his life, and he recited (O guardian of allure, what do you allure with, and O night that has passed and intensified its play) and sometimes she would glance at him with her eye, and sometimes she would not show him her pleased face, and he changed the poems with tales of his exploits and battles; when he was in the bloom of his youth, and how he used to hang the small gun on his thumb, and that he would scare the donkeys when he rode the tough ones. She responded to him, “What should one do in life if the first one dies?” He took pride in himself saying (Abu Mankabah) and added; “You are worth more than the one who died first, and I swear if I had to break my head against the wall of your house to win you over, even if I had to bend down to carry the pillars on my shoulders; her face brightened, and she asked him to help her brother (Nakadhan) and inquired where she could find him? She said; “He is in the market; a round of fortunes; he walks barefoot, and he is not blessed by rain or sunshine,” he said; “I am happy with that.”
The first time he saw him he said (If you see him barefoot, say O Sufficient One) he replied; “A barefoot man is a full-minded man,” he hung on; “Yes, O Rahim;” then he turned to him and asked; “Where did you come from, Rahim, if you did not have mercy?” He asked him for God’s commitment, and (Nakadhan) was not less than anything, he would not approach his den; nor would he be trampled in his grain nor scattered in his pasture; he bargained with him for lands and arms; and whenever he heard from him a desire, he would respond (I wish you would get used to our wood, O wood of our house) and the barefoot man would reply (nor would he say to the assistant, O my brother, our house).
On the day of the marriage contract; the scholar asked him to repeat with him “I have married her” but he could not pronounce it; and said; “I will bow under her” so they laughed and Rahim said; “They have bowed you on your horn until you reach the steadfast water, you will take her on a sheep;” then (Nakadhan) who settled with his sister in Rahim’s house, added to the villages and called the group; he replied; “He did not take her and her secret is hidden, God has torn it apart and given it to her, and (Nakadhan) began to control the entrance, buying and selling in Rahim’s possessions, and on a day when he felt good; he reached with him a bag of tobacco, he said; “O you who swallow the arms, you do not read in your house, be in your good for my sake, and your belly is like the rider who is slipping, and he raised his voice in song (and your brother has mounted the troughs above my well, he does not think and occupies the well, he moves slowly and the well is his well) and he asked her; “Will your brother turn away from me in the abundance of my Lord; or will I cut your rope and his?” She said; “And will you make me angry?” He said; “I made my mother and father angry before you.”
He separated from her, and from her brother, and stayed with the scholar for a few days, and opened his eyes, and lent him the donkey; and directed him to some houses in the Sham and Yemeni villages; and advised him; “Travel and be at ease, and if your eye is blessed, return to it; and be happy with what fulfills your needs, take him a full time; and he sent him three times in succession, and whenever someone congratulated him he would say; “I am happy to have a creature like the hen that lays eggs and hatches and raises without a rooster, and if it lies down it does not get up; and if it sits it does not move, and how sweet is the one who sits in its heat.”
Doubt entered him so he divorced her, leaving her and her children in the house, and moved to his sister’s house in the Mashreq tribe, and when she inquired about his condition; he replied; “Whoever saw my condition did not measure me; but I wish for a bride, with money and her family is honorable,” she said; “From your beauty, or from your fasting and prayers, or from your sustenance and your wealth, may God not let the dog enter the mosque,” she added; “From the edge, O my friend, in its pit; and she sang (O brother, you have harmed yourself in lawful matters, I beg you to rest from herding sheep and goats)” so he asked for tea, and filled the hookah; and recited; (O you who have confused me for the trivial, I found it).