Sol 5.6

  1. When the day had passed, well spent, and slipped away,

    and pitch-black darkness spread its two curtains,

  2. we turned to a shard of a notched, keen-edged blade,

    setting against it a chip of hard, unyielding flint.

  3. At their meeting the two smiled, revealing a blaze

    that darted like lightning in a flash, then vanished.

  4. At times it would fall upon something worn and blackened,

    and he would gather it with a twig like a reed pen.

  5. A blue-black piece of tinder, like a slapped cheek, caught it,

    until it gave birth to a fiercely blazing fire.

  6. By its light we rose, rending the curtains of darkness,

    while in our midst a clamorous thing crackled in contention.

  7. Though the gazelles of the thicket slept, it did not sleep;

    we kept stirring it among the hollows and hillocks,

  8. as bells are struck when morning smiles.

    It follows the unbridled hound wherever he heads—

  9. a white hound, black-mottled in coat and markings.

    Toward his companions he shows favors and generosity;

  10. and those favors are calamities visited upon the wild beasts.

    Ahead of the quarry he is swifter than the Flood of al-ʿArim,

  11. leading us to the well-concealed lair,

    asking the east wind about it—and she divulges the secret—

  12. until the herd appears close at hand,

    bewildered, terror having clothed it in madness.

  13. It wheels away, but he overtakes it; then it yields in surrender

    and lies as spoil, apportioned hand to hand.

  14. It did not complain of any pain from fang or claw.

    No banner of dawn had yet risen in the east

  15. before we had dyed the whole expanse with its blood,

    and by morning our fingertips were like the crimson berries of the ʿanam tree.

  16. Our cauldrons rose upon their hearthstones,

    calling to riders still beyond sight: “Come!”

  17. For we live in abundance, beneath the sheltering shade of bounty;

    in our white blades we have fortresses and refuges.

  18. There is no fear while we seek shelter in them, nor any want.

Sol 5.6