The Importance of Gourdcrafting

From Chapter 16: ROUGH METAPHORS
Book V, Verses 1333-1405
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The story of the maidservant who engaged in lustful acts with the mistress's donkey, having trained it like a goat and a bear to perform human-like acts of lust, and used a gourd on the donkey's member to prevent it from going too far. The mistress discovered this but did not notice the detail of the gourd. She sent the maidservant away on a pretext to a distant place and joined with the donkey without the gourd, leading to her disgraceful demise. The maidservant returned unexpectedly and lamented, "Oh my soul and my bright eyes, you saw the member but did not see the gourd; you saw the mention but not the other." Every incomplete thing is cursed, meaning every incomplete view and understanding is cursed. However, those with incomplete physical appearances are not cursed but blessed, as stated in "There is no blame on the blind," which negates blame, curse, and reproach.

A maidservant threw herself upon a donkey, overwhelmed by lust and excessive harm.  
She had trained the male donkey to be accustomed to humans, and the donkey had learned human mating.  
There was a gourd for the cunning one, used to measure the size.  
The old woman would place the gourd on the member to allow only half of it to enter during the act.  
If the entire donkey's member entered her, it would destroy her womb and intestines.  
The donkey became thin, and its mistress was puzzled as to why it had become like a hair.  
She showed the donkey to the farriers, asking what the cause of its thinness was.  
No apparent cause was found in it, and no one could inform her of its secret.  
She earnestly began to investigate, becoming increasingly prepared for the inquiry.  
Earnestness must be the servant's soul, for earnestness is the seeker and finder.  
When she investigated the matter of the tears, she saw the narcissus lying beneath the donkey.  
Through the crack of the door, she saw the situation, and it seemed very strange to the old woman.  
The donkey was mating with the maidservant as if with the intellect and manner of men with women.  
In jealousy, she said, "How is this possible? Then it is more fitting for the donkey to be mine."  
The donkey had become refined and trained, setting the table and lighting the lamp.  
She pretended not to see and knocked on the door, saying, "Maidservant, how long will you sweep the house?"  
She said this as a cover, saying, "Maidservant, I have come, open the door."  
She remained silent and did not tell the maidservant, hiding the secret for her own greed.  
She frowned and filled her eyes with tears, rubbing her lips as if to say, "I am fasting."  
In her hand was a soft broom, saying, "I was sweeping the house for the stable."  
When she opened the door with the broom in hand, the mistress whispered, "Oh master."  
"You frown and hold a broom in your hand, what is that donkey doing, separated from the fodder?"  
Half-finished and angry, its member wagging, its eyes towards the door in anticipation of you.  
She whispered this secretly from the maidservant, holding her dear at that moment as if without guilt.  
Then she said to her, "Put on your veil, go to such and such a house with a message from me."  
"Say this, do that, and do it this way," I have summarized the tale of women.  
Take the essence of what is intended, as that stern old woman sent her on her way.  
She was joyful from the intoxication of lust, closing the door and saying at that moment,  
"I have found solitude, I will shout with joy, I am free from four and two shares."  
She became a thousand times more joyful than a goat, restless in the fire of the donkey's lust.  
What a goat, for that lust took her as a goat; it is not surprising for the bewildered to be taken as a goat.  
The inclination of lust deafens and blinds the heart, making a donkey appear as Joseph, fire as light.  
Many are intoxicated by fire and seek fire, thinking themselves to be absolute light.  
Except for the servant of God or the attraction of the Truth, who brings them to the path and turns the page.  
So they know that the fiery illusion is nothing but a loan in the path.  
Lust makes the ugly appear beautiful; there is nothing worse than lust as a roadblock.  
It has made hundreds of thousands of good names shameful, hundreds of thousands of wise ones foolish.  
When it showed a donkey as the Joseph of Egypt, how would it show a Joseph to that Jew?  
It turned dung into honey for you with its spell; how would it turn honey itself when it is time for battle?  
Lust comes from eating, so reduce your food, or marry and flee from evil.  
When you eat, it pulls you towards the harem; inevitably, the income must have an expense.  
Thus, marriage came as a refuge, so that the devil does not throw you into disaster.  
When the greedy one eats, he soon desires a wife, or else the cat comes and steals the fat.  
Place a heavy load on a donkey that is leaping, quickly before it sets it down.  
You do not know the action of fire as cold; do not circle around the fire with such knowledge.  
If you do not have the knowledge of the pot and fire, neither the pot nor the father will remain from the spark.  
Water must be present, and culture too, so that the pot cooks safely in the boiling.  
If you do not know the knowledge of blacksmithing, your beard and hair will burn when you pass by.  
She closed the door and pulled the donkey, joyfully, inevitably tasting the punishment.  
She brought it into the middle of the house, dragging it, lying beneath that male donkey.  
On the same chair where she saw the maidservant, so that she too could reach her desire.  
She lifted her leg, and the donkey thrust into her, igniting a fire from the donkey's member within her.  
The donkey, having become refined, pressed into the mistress, and in an instant, the mistress died from the testicles.  
Her liver was torn from the blow of the donkey's member, her intestines shattered from each other.  
She did not speak at that moment, the woman gave up her soul, the chair fell to one side, the woman to the other.  
The courtyard of the house was filled with blood, the woman overturned, she died, and the soul was taken by the angel of death.  
A bad death with a hundred disgraces, oh father, have you ever seen a martyr from a donkey's member?  
Listen to the torment of disgrace from the Prophet, do not sacrifice your soul in such shame.  
Know that this carnal soul is a male donkey, being beneath it is even more disgraceful.  
If you die on the path of the soul in lust, know the truth that you are like that woman.  
Our soul gives the appearance of a donkey, for it creates forms according to its nature.  
This is the revelation of the secret on the Day of Resurrection, by God, by God, flee from the body like a donkey.  
God warned the disbelievers of the fire, the disbelievers said the fire is better than disgrace.  
He said no, that fire is the source of disgrace, just like this fire that consumed this woman.  
She did not eat the morsel in moderation from her greed, the morsel of death got stuck in her throat.  
Eat the morsel in moderation, oh greedy man, even if the morsel is sweet and delicious.  
God Almighty gave the balance a tongue, read the chapter of the Merciful from the Quran.  
Do not neglect the balance from your own greed, greed and avarice are your misleading enemies.  
Greed seeks everything, it rises from everything, do not worship greed, oh foolish son of the foolish.  
The maidservant was going and saying, "Oh, you have sent the master away, oh mistress."  
You want to do the work without a master, ignorantly you will lose your life.  
Oh, you who have stolen incomplete knowledge from me, it was a shame to ask about the state of the trap.

Barks Interpretation

There was a maidservant