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The 'hadith' is placedlin a situational context in which "eleven
women sat (at a place) and promised and contracted that they would not
conceal anything of the news of their husbands". From this
introduction by the narrator of the 'hadith', the moral behind the
text, ie. how to treat one's household in a polite and kind manner,
becomes quite apparent. Separetely and in detail, we will deal with
the statement of each wife.
The first wife (TT) said: "My husband is like the meat of a lean
weak camel which is kept on top of a mountain which is neither easy to
climb, nor is the meat fat, so that one might put up with the trouble
of fetching it". The ST statement, though abundantly informative, is
economically metaphorical. The woman states that her husband, who is
old and skinny, is not the man any woman would dream of. His skin is
like the skin of an old disabled camel which, having been kept for a
long time on the top of a mountain, further thinned and wrinkled. He
is simply good-for-nothing. The alliteration in 'jamal' and 'jabal'
together with the antithesis in the last two phrases add to the beauty
of the style. The similitudes of the 'camel' and the 'mountain' are
relevant to the situational context of the text. The alliterative,
assimilative, and elliptical devices, very much characteristic of
poetry, could not be carried into the translation. The translation,
however, is literal and unimpressive.
The second wife (TT) said: "I shall not relate my husband's news,
for I fear that I may not be able to finish his story, for if I
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