Sol 5.6

  1. By my life, the people of Syria thrust more fiercely with the spear,

    and guard more zealously what they fear disgrace may touch.

  2. They are the ones who drive the horses forward, their throats streaming blood,

    when the locks of hair turn white from the terror of battle.

  3. We fled in haste, away from our sons and our kin,

    and from our wives, when the sword-blades confronted us.

  4. We lost our nerve—though from the watering-place of death there is no escape.

    Fie upon those miserly, self-clinging souls!

  5. We left them in the open plain of Iraq, while bearing us away

    were tall, long-limbed mares of al-A‘waj’s breed.

  6. So tell the fair women to weep for men other than us;

    let none mourn us but barking dogs.

  7. They appealed to us in tears, fearing they would be given over as spoil

    to the Christians’ spears and the swords that rend flesh.

  8. They wept in hopes that men would shield them from those foes,

    but the hearts enclosed within our ribs refused.

  9. They called after us: “Where can you flee? You once

    were jealous even lest our anklets and embroidered sashes be exposed.

  10. Have you surrendered us to the enemy at spearpoint,

    now that the spears have been stripped of their butting horns?”

  11. Yet not one of you showed a protector’s zeal for his wife,

    nor any man of mettle, though the bonds of marriage were dear to him.

Sol 5.6