إنَّ لكل شيء من العلم ونوع من الحكمة وصنف من الأدب سببًا يدعو إلى تأليف ما كان فيه مشتَّتًا، ومعنًى يحدو على جمع ما كان متفرقًا.
Every knowledge, every kind of wisdom and class of literature has its own reason that calls for collecting its scattered parts, and it has its own significance which provokes the gathering of its dispersed elements.
ومتى أغفل حَمَلة الأدب وأهل المعرفة تمييزَ الأخبار، واستنباطَ الآثار، وضمَّ كل جوهر نفيس إلى شكله، وتأليفَ كل نادر من الحكمة إلى مثله، بَطَلَتِ الحكمة وضاع العلم، وأُمِيت الأدب، ودَرَس مستور كل نادر.
When literateurs and scholars failed to distinguish the events and to bring out the noteworthy happenings as well as to unite every valuable jewel to its counterpart and to join every rare bit of wisdom with something else of its kind, wisdom vanished, knowledge was lost, literature dead and the secret of each marvel wiped out.
ولولا تقييد العلماء خواطرهم على الدهر، ونقرهم آثار الأوائل في الصخر، لَبَطَلَ أول العلم وضاع آخره؛
And if scholars would not have registered their thoughts for eternity and if they would not have engraved the noteworthy accomplishments of the ancients upon rocks, knowledge would have vanished from beginning to end.
وإنَّ السبب على جمع نتف من أخبار العرب في حنينها إلى أوطانها، وشوقها إلى تُرَبها وبلدانها، ووصفها في أشعارها توقُّدَ النار في أكبادها؛ أني فاوضت بعضَ من انتقل من الملوك في ذكر الديار، والنزاع إلى الأوطان، فسمعته يذكر أنه اغترب من بلد إلى آخرَ أمهدَ من وطنه، وأعمرَ من مكانه، وأخصبَ من جنابه،
The reason why I gathered some bits of information of the Arabs about their yearning for their native land, about their longing for their earth and cities and about the way how they described in their poems the burning fire in their hearts, is that in a conversation which I had with a displaced king about one’s recollection of home and affection for the native land, I heard him say that he went from a country to one more cheerful, more populated and more prosperous than his native land;
ولم يزل عظيمَ الشان، جليلَ السلطان، تَدِين له من عشائر العرب ساداتُها وفتيانُها، ومن شعوب العجم أنجادُها وشجعانُها،
He always enjoyed a high position and much authority. The lords and the (noble) young men of the Arab tribes obeyed him; and so did the bold and brave men of the non- Arab nations.
وكان كما قال الشاعر:
إِذَا مَا ذَكَرْتُ الثَّغْرَ فَاضَتْ مَدَامِعِي *** وَأَضْحَى فُؤَادِي نُهْبَةً لِلْهَمَاهِمِ
حَنِينًا إِلَى أَرْضٍ بِهَا اخْضَرَّ شَارِبِي *** وَحُلَّتْ بِهَا عَنِّي عُقُودُ التَّمَائِمِ
وَأَلْطَفُ قَوْمٍ بِالْفَتَى أَهْلُ أَرْضِهِ *** وَأَرْعَاهُمُ لِلْمَرْءِ حَتَّى التَّقَادُمِ
He fitted the description of the poet;
Whenever I remember the home, my eyes are full of tears
and my heart becomes a prey to anxieties,
Because of my yearning for a land where I grew up to manhood
and where the strings of amulets were taken off from me.
The nicest people for a youth to have are his countrymen,
the ones who most respect the man’s right of his past.
وكما قال الآخر:
يَقَرُّ بِعَيْنِي أَنْ أَرَى مَنْ مَكَانُهُ *** ذُرَا عُقُدَاتِ الْأَبْرَقِ الْمُتَقَاوِدِ
وأَنْ أَرِدَ الْمَاءَ الَّذِي شَرِبَتْ بِهِ *** سُلَيْمَى وَقَدْ مَلَّ السُّرَى كُلُّ وَاخِدِ
وَأَلْصِقُ أَحْشَائِي بِبَرْدِ تُرَابِهِ *** وَإِنْ كَانَ مَخْلُوطًا بِسُمِّ الْأَسَاوِدِ
As well as the description of another poet:
It cools my eye to see, on the spot,
the summits of the undulations of the plain Abrag
And to descend to the water spring from which Sulayma has drunk,
after all fast striding (men) had enough of the night journey.
And to press my belly to the coolness of its soil,
even if it is infected with the poison of the large black snakes.
فقلت: لئن قلت ذلك، لقد قالت العجم: من علامة الرشد أن تكون النفس إلى مولدها مشتاقة، وإلى مسقط رأسها توَّاقة.
So I said: If so you speak, the Persians said before: It is a sign of straightforwardness that one yearns for one’s birth-place, and that one sighs for one’s home.””