12. Yusuf

O fellow-prisoners! As for one of you, that is, the cup-bearer, he will depart after three [days] and, he shall serve his lord, his master, wine to drink, as usual; and as for the other, he will depart after three [days] and, he will be crucified so that the birds will eat from his head: this is the interpretation of both your dreams. They said, ‘We never dreamed a thing!’; he said, decided, concluded, is the matter regarding which you sought opinion’, about which you enquired, whether you spoke truthfully or were lying.

Then he said to the one whom he deemed, [whom] he was certain, would be saved of the two — and this was the cup-bearer: ‘Mention me to your lord’, your master, and say to him, ‘There is a young man in jail who has been wrongly imprisoned’. So he [the cup-bearer] departed, but Satan caused him, that is, the cup-bearer, to forget the mention, of Joseph, before his master, so that he, Joseph, stayed, he remained, in prison for some years: it is said [that he remained] for seven years, or for twelve.

And the king, the king of Egypt — al-Rayyān b. al-Walīd — said, ‘I saw in [a dream] seven fat kine being devoured, being swallowed up, by seven lean ones, of kine (‘ijāf is the plural of ‘ajfā’), and seven green ears of corn and others, that is seven [other] ears of corn, dry, that had wound themselves around the green ones and risen above them. O courtiers! Give me [your] opinion about my vision: expound for me its interpretation, if you can interpret visions’, then interpret it for me.

They said, this is, ‘A jumble, a mixture, of dreams! And we are not knowledgeable in the interpretation of dreams’.

And he of the two who was released, that is, of the two young men, namely, the cup-bearer, remembering (iddakara: the original tā’ [of tadhakkara] has been changed to a dāl and assimilated with the dhāl), after a time, [after] a period of time, the predicament of Joseph, said, ‘I will inform you of its interpretation; so send me forth’, so they sent him forth and he came to Joseph, and said:

‘O, Joseph, O truthful one, one given to truth, give us your opinion concerning seven fat kine that are devoured by seven lean ones, and [concerning] seven green ears of corn and [seven] others dry, that I may return to the people, that is, to the king and his courtiers, so that they might know’, its interpretation.

He said, ‘You shall sow — that is, [go ahead and] sow — seven years consecutively — and this was the interpretation of the seven fat ones — but that which you reap, leave it in the ear, lest it spoil, except for a little which you eat: thresh it.

Then after that, in other words, after the seven fertile [years], there shall come seven hard, barren and unyielding, years — the interpretation of the seven lean ones — which shall devour what you set aside for them, of grain sown during the fertile years, in other words, you shall eat [all] this during these [seven hard years], all except a little which you have preserved, stored.

Then after that, in other words, after the seven barren years, there shall come a year in which the people will be granted relief, through rain, and in which they will press [fruit], grapes, and other [seeds], because of its [that year’s] fertility.

And the king, after the messenger had come to him and informed him of its [the dream’s] interpretation, said: ‘Bring him to me!’, that is, the one who interpreted it. And when the messenger came to him, that is, [to] Joseph, and summoned him in order to depart [from the prison], he said — with the intention of manifesting his innocence — ‘Return to your lord and ask him, to inquire: “What of, [what was] the case with, the women who cut their hands?” Surely my lord, my master, has knowledge of their guile’; he [the messenger] thus returned and informed the king, who then summoned them [the women].