Jane Miller
30
from A Palace of Pearls
There arrive fourteen hundred beasts
besides four hundred camels of the Sultan’s
and a thousand mules hired for the occasion
at the rate of three mithqals a month
to convey six thousand blocks of stone great and small polished or rough
and in the building every third day eleven hundred burdens of lime and gypsum are used
four thousand columns travel from Rome
nineteen from France
the Emperor of Constantinople presents one hundred and forty
and one thousand and thirteen green and rose marble stones leave Carthage and Tunis
the remainder are native to Andalusia
as for instance the white marble which grows slowly in Tarragons and Almeria
and the streaked marble which enlivens Raya
with its uselessness and innocence
until it materializes into great wealth
discord and panic and so forth
it is a wonder
the wonders include two fountains with basins
such that when the Khalif receives the smaller one he fixes on it
twelve figures made in the arsenal of Cordoba
of red gold and pearls one like a lion one an antelope
another a crocodile
opposite an eagle and a dragon
a pigeon a falcon a peacock a hen a cock a kite and a vulture all drenched in jewels
together they shoot water out their mouths all praise to Allah
proper Arabic for The One and Only God
used by Christians Allaha in Aramaic
the mother tongue of Jesus pbuh
and Eloh-im in Hebrew
Allah does not have a plural or gender
Allah does not have any partner
He does not beget
nor was He begotten
behold The Creator and Sustainer of the universe
and the Extravagance of the Buildings for the Reception of the Court
the Barracks for the Troops
the Pleasure Gardens the Baths and So Forth nearly beyond measure
the total expense for hiring amounts to three thousand mithqals a month
for the animals alone
one can only imagine that the price for a single slave or prisoner
ordered in the name of Allah into the heat every day to lift
BEYOND WHAT IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE MUST BE AN ASTONISHING FIGURE
Jane Miller’s book-length sequence, A Palace of Pearls, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in 2004. She is on the faculty of The University of Arizona and lives in Tucson.