Sol 5.6

  1. The clan’s abandoned dwellings, lashed by gentle rains—

    their people and possessions among all that has vanished.

  2. I cross their campsite, going and returning;

    along its two sides, the young creatures have grown strong.

  3. Full-grown wild beasts graze there, and every towering ostrich.

    Like travelers whose camp caught fire, they cried:

  4. “By Moses, teacher of the Torah,

    and by Him to whom Bilal prayed and fasted!

  5. Umm ʿAmr once truly cherished you,

    at Dhāt al-Ṣadr, when other bonds were forgotten.

  6. And gleaming blades made heads tumble there,

    when spearpoints flashed white through the cavalry’s gaps.

  7. And when they summoned Kaʿb and cried,

    ‘Down to battle!’—for battle was ever their custom—

  8. at al-ʿAqīq a crier seeking aid for Kaʿb came to us;

    then the nabʿ-wood bows groaned, and thirsty spears yearned.

  9. Three times; then against them we set turning

    a mill of death, with no catch-cloth beneath it.

  10. We made comrades of swords and poised mares;

    to us, they stand equal with our children—

  11. daughters of daughters of ʿAʿwaj, high-spirited,

    covered by stallions as far as sight could reach.

  12. Barley was their provision, with crumbled qatt-fodder,

    and shoes for them forged from the very substance of iron.

  13. Al-Ḥarīsh formed compact squadrons and confronted us

    with cavalry whose horsemen rode in pride;

  14. and Qushayr streamed down from its broad valley floors,

    like the flood of Bīsha when they surged forth.

  15. We led the horses—every rangy, full-chested steed,

    and every compact mare, balanced in build.

  16. At morning, even the jinn would almost, on our account—

    when our battalions formed ranks—be struck with terror.

  17. So they spent the night at al-ʿUsayla, reined in and ready;

    at daybreak, theirs would be a dust-cloud of rout.

  18. Then, when a white dawn with bright-fringed skirts split the dark—

    it wore one guise, and darkness another—

  19. we fell upon them at dawn, our mares’ forelocks disheveled;

    the mares were noble, and vengeance boiled within us.

  20. When two hundred of their men had been struck down

    and their resolve fled them, they turned and vanished.

  21. They ended divided between some beyond our reach

    and others for whom a tall trunk had been raised.

  22. Ḥanīfa would shroud them after a full year—

    but how can they shroud men over whom a year has passed?

  23. Are they of your people, O Ḥanīfa? Yes, by my life:

    beards dyed red, and blood pouring in torrents.

  24. But for the wind, their folk in Ḥajar would have heard

    the ringing cry of bright blades as spearpoints struck them.

  25. It was as though the horses sweeping down upon them,

    bearing dawn-raiders, were sandgrouse, flock upon flock.

Sol 5.6