Honour and silk

My wife Lesley Katon has an avian eye for wonderful second-hand books. No gloamy back room, unsorted pile or foxed cover can temper her pursuit of a homeless bibliographical gem. So it was yesterday, when she returned from our local bookshop – Dim & Distant – with this battered but beautiful piece. Published by Delpire in 1961, it contains mesmerising photographs of Tunisia, together with insightful texts by Claude Roy and Paul Sebag. The writers have included lots of excerpts from other authors, along with reproductions of Tunisian folksongs and poems. I’d just been listening to a discussion about Goldman Sachs on Radio Four when I turned to the page shown here. The poem reads:

Honor

Everything is sold at the market

At its price, without discussion,

Except your honour as a man among men.

Torn honor cannot be mended

Even with real silk:

The cloth gave way, you can put your fingers through it.

Honor among the well born

Is a brilliant, clear crystal.

If it breaks

There is no mender who can mend it.

Tunisian folk poem

Tim Tim Rich 66000 miles per hour