ooks, and add much force to what is said or written.
Many are light and colloquial, and bring a smile or laughter to both
speaker and hearer; but many also are distinguished by their classical
form and the serious weighty ideas which they convey or inculcate. It
was easy, therefore, to find abundant material for this little book,
but it was somewhat difficult to make a wise selection, to classify the
different subjects under proper heads, and to translate Arabic idioms
into good English. Other difficulties were when the proverb in Arabic
is formed of two parts which assonate or rhyme, when the piquancy of a
short sentence depends so much on the quaintness of its expression,
when an untranslatable pun or play upon words is used, or when the
phrase is too elliptical or too Oriental in its reference to be easily
understood by English readers. The translation I have made is
generally literal, sometimes free, but always true to the original.
Some I have left in their Oriental form to show the Arabian bent of
thought and mode of life. The renderings from the Koran are all mine,
and I alone am responsible for them. All that I have tried to do was
for ordinary readers--and for them alone.

Many proverbs are common to all languages, and in them all--notably
among Semitic nations--there is often an exaggeration,[1] or a
one-sided view,[2] or a paradox,[3] which must be taken with some
latitude and with the natural limitations required by common sense. It
will also be observed that many Arabic proverbs have a close
resemblance to the Proverbs of Solomon, and often assume that
rhetorical form or parallelism in which Hebrew poetry abounds when the
same idea is repeated in other words, or where its positive and
negative sides are put into contrast. The following quotation, taken
from the eighth chapter of that book, may serve as an example of what
has just been said, and as an appropriate introduction to this little
book:

"Doth not wisdom cry,
And understanding put forth her voice?
Unto you, O men, I call;
And my voice is to the sons of men.
For my mouth shall utter truth;
And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
For whoso findeth me findeth life,
And shall obtain favour of the Lord.
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul:
All they that hate me love death."

[1] "A fool throws a stone into a well, and a thousand wise men cannot
get it out."

[2] "A man is safe when alone." "