Sol 5.6

  1. As though, O Sulayma, we had never stopped among you,

    with fleet, deep-chested she-camels beneath us;

  2. as though we had never spoken to you while the envious stood by—

    though speech about one’s desires catches and falters.

  3. Nor did we say, the day your pale camels strode swiftly away,

    and the great Dawseriyya was driven on with a teakwood pole:

  4. “May—may God rain upon those neighbors of ours who journeyed off,”

    when the summons to leave the meadows of al-Hazn drew near.

  5. I did not dread their parting until at dawn they went in bands,

    and the full-grown, noble camels closed ranks bearing them.

  6. Then from behind, their singing camel-driver urged them hard,

    while the howdahs hid, beyond reach, the women one loves.

  7. Dabba awoke emptied of them,

    as al-Zawra, and then al-‘Awj, were emptied.

  8. Those dwellings of yours at al-Qaff are effaced,

    where summer’s dust and raging winds run free—

  9. desolate, bare; nothing dwells there

    except gazelles and ravens harshly cawing.

  10. Within it are tethering stakes and traces across its open court,

    one still standing in the camp, worn thin and split.

  11. A dwelling once belonging to a soft-living, fair woman, whose raiment

    was striped Yemeni cloth and a mantle rich with embroidery;

  12. and a stagnant watering place, dark about its approaches,

    as though flies’ spittle had been spat into it.

  13. Sulayma visited you while the darkness lay deep,

    the eye asleep and the soul borne away.

  14. Welcome, then, apparition that came upon us!

    O Salm, in peace there is no constraint upon me.

  15. Will they indeed bring you near to Salma and her company—

    young she-camels of Arhab stock, tall and powerful,

  16. with pendant lips and strongly knit forelegs,

    slender-shanked, their feet smooth and fleet?

  17. When they conceived by the stallion’s seed, it hurried them;

    mating-time came, and they did not carry full term—a premature birth.

  18. Wild beasts tear the afterbirth from it, tugging it apart,

    as though it were a striped mantle streaked with red.

  19. She said, “You have turned away from loving me.” I answered her:

    “No—by Him whose House, O Salm, the pilgrims seek!

  20. I do not forget—never forget—a glance of yours that passed

    on a feast day, the day when all go forth.”

Sol 5.6