Sol 5.6

  1. He served us greens when we made our mounts kneel at his door,

    And so, among us, he became an oppressor of beasts.

  2. We halted the caravan at his place, asking him for hospitality,

    While we sat astride the necks of dusty mounts standing there.

  3. So he fasted—though fasting by night is not permitted,

    Even if permitted in the jurisprudence of ill-omened misers.

  4. He declared fasting by night permissible when he was alarmed

    By the repeated arrival of a guest swimming through the night's darkness.

  5. Thus we spent the whole night, folding hunger upon hunger,

    As though we lay on dusty ground patterned like a tattooer's back.

  6. And when we emerged from the darkness, he fed us

    Little round pellets that would not pass down an eater's throat,

  7. Round and black-backed, as though they were

    The testicles of Zanj men showing beneath erect phalluses.

  8. Their skins resemble the underbellies of scorpions,

    And their heads resemble the noses of cupping cups.

Sol 5.6