The Book of Conversation and Discussion

A book—the best of the friends; its riddles will amuse you. And if you wish, its admonitions will occupy your mind, for it will include the least and the most, the present and the absent, the lofty and the abject, the first and the last, and the fleeting and the permanent; and it is like a dead person speaking of the dead, and will tell the history of life. Like an entertainer, it will gladden the heart of those who rejoice over it. A man will not find a more faithful friend nor will he find a more obedient companion or a more perfect teacher; a colleague that will not trouble you or deny you a favor. And if you go into exile, it will be a friend in your solitude, a colleague in a foreign place, a light in darkness, enjoyment in loneliness. Since it does not ask for reward, it will only give and not take. And as their poet said: the best friend in the world—a book. [ . . . ]

When lavishing praise on someone, the poet may state that the face of the person he is praising shines more than the sun, and that his hands saturate [the ground] more than torrents of rain, and that he is more courageous than a lion, and his heart is wider than the ocean, and so on. Truthfully, all these comparisons are falsehoods the need for which is dictated by poetry writing. [ . . . ]

If you intend to take an idea about which someone else has already written, do it wisely by adding to it something that it lacks—an addition that would not destroy it, or a subtraction that would not put it to shame since the definition of addition is adding beyond what is required and subtraction is a deficiency in what is required. What is required is perfection, and perfection is one of the attributes of our Creator exalted and extolled, but for man it is only a metaphor. On the matter of plagiarizers of poetry, here is what al-Jahiz, foremost among the speakers on the subject, had to say: I do not know of a poet who innovated a successful love preface to a poem or a crucial idea or an original aphorism, and some other poet came after him to boast about them or part of them as if they were his own. Changing a word or the rhythm, the original poet has no more right to them than the poet who came after him since he can deny any intention to plagiarize and he can claim that he conceived of these ideas just as his predecessor had done, and there is no way to contradict him with evidence. [ . . . ]

And if you intend to translate some matter from Arabic into Hebrew, catch the spirit and the intention of the author, and do not translate word for word since, as I have already stated, there is no one-on-one correspondence in languages. The best translator expresses himself with the best lexicon at his disposal in his own language. [ . . . ]

Of all the aforementioned matters [i.e., the rules of grammar] and those that will follow, it is not humanly possible when a person is writing a poem or a sermon or a letter not to omit one of them and to be so careful as not to make any mistakes at all, because omissions are inherent in writing and in every difficult endeavor, and I did not teach you but a few of these rules and did not call your attention but to a few of them among the many, so that you should observe them because they are as a foundation to a building. And according to the extent of your confidence and virtue, decide what you wish with self-assurance, and if you compare the directions of things considering them well in your heart and remember their advantages and benefits and observe what they require you to do, you will be safe from falling where so many other writers have fallen. [ . . . ]

Since I have already said that poetry is an Arab craft and that the Jews follow the Arabs in it, I will not pay attention to those who deny the connection between reality and ability since the Arabs agreed on this and also made the tools for their writing and for their rhymes, so that when these are used in their poems, their poetry acquires grace, but when their poems lack them, they become ugly and flat, even if they are not exemplary, but just ordinary. We must agree with them about these things as they are and according to our ability because it would not be right to follow them only in part and not all the way. [ . . . ]

Peruse the verses of the Bible for this will increase your desire for them and your attachment to them. And when you read the poetry of famous poets from the two nations and discern the breadth of their aspiration, you will benefit from them too, and you will gladden them.