وَقفتُ على رَبْعٍ لِرايةَ ناقتي

أريقُ سَما جفني به وأسائُلهْ

I stood at the ruins of the abode of my she-camel,

Tears raining from my eyelids as I questioned it,

وكيفَ يُرد الرَّجعَ ربعٌ مخلَّدٌ

بحيثُ الغضا أقوَت سنيناً منازلهْ

How can a ruined abode return the returning?

Where the passing years had strengthened its dwellings.

عفا غير سُفع كالحمائم جُثَّمٍ

وأورَق باٍد في الخصاصات جائُلهْ

It remained roofless like nesting doves,

Its poles leafless amidst dense shrubs,

ونؤيٍ كجذم الحوض أثلمَ خاشعٍ

وأشعثً فردٍ شجَّ بالفهر عاطُلهْ

Its basin-like trough lay darkened and humbled,

Its useless ropes left dangling by the abandoned tent pegs.

بِه كلُّ شحَّاجٍ إلى كلَّ سمْحجٍ

تُعالجُه أنَّى أنبرى وتمِاطلهْ

To it, every mendicant inclines to each generous one,

Howsoever he cries out to it, it evades and eludes him,

وسيدٍ وسمعٍ والخُفار وفُرعلٍ

وأرقط إن صال استكانت فراعلهْ

As well as the chief, the famed, the guards and the nobles,

Even the swift-footed if he prayed, its tent pegs obeyed him.

فسل الهوى واستحَمل الهمَّ بازلا

رعتهُ الفيافي فاسلهمَّتْ كواِهلهْ

So I asked of love and bore the worries patiently,

Its food carried off by hyenas, so its shoulders were bared.

كأني شددتُ الرَّحل في متن ناشط

قذيف يوارى النحض والنَّيُّ شاملهْ

As if I had tightened the saddle on an active she-camel,

A projectile, hiding the mound and the intention within.

شَبوبٍ أجمَّ الرَّوق قهدِ محدَّدٍ

سبحّلٍ أضاعتهُ أصيلاً حلائلهْ

In the vigor of youth, the provisions limited,

An origional lost by the separating calamities.

فأمسى وَحيداً مُفرداً من نعاجِه

يقابلُ أهوالَ السُّرى وتُقابلُهْ

So it remained alone, singular, apart from its ewes,

Confronting the horrors of travel, and they confronting it.

يَسحُّ انسلالَ السمع في ظل أغضفِ

يُطحطح فيه غَيمُة وغياِطلهْ

It sweeps its hearing in the shade of the oleander bushes,

Where a small cloud clucks, and its showers leak through.

يُريع كناساً ساتراً يتقي بِهِ

سَما ُمسبكرٍ بلَّ متنيه وابلهْ

It pastures like an obscuring cloud, taking cover thereby,

From time long buried in clouds, delivering its rain.

فَبَلَ بأرطاةٍ على غب بأسهِ

بمعتلج قدْ لبَّدته هَواطلهْ

So it endured with a resolve, in spite of its weakness,

Driven to desperation, its knees almost buckling.

فهدَّ انْصياعاً نابتاً في نِصابها

بروقيه والدَّيجورُ سفُعٌ ذلاذلهْ

When it said, “The troops have come at us from all sides,”

The cavalry descended on him, an immense collapse.

إذا قال يا قد صارَ كنَّا ترادفتْ

عليه اقاصِي الخيل وانقاض هائلهْ

And it spent a terrible night, while its fears for itself kept it awake,

And when the corner of dawn cracked, its brother came to it.

وبات يُقاسي لَيلةً نَابغيةً

سميراهُ فيها رَوْعُهُ وأفاكلهْ

Lean, worn, his cloak patched, a gritty nomad,

Few are his camels, his face emaciated and barren.

فما افترَّ ثغرُ الفجرِ حتى انبرى لهُ

أخو أكلبٍ لُدٍ عَنيدٍ يخاتلهْ

He circles a barren land like a lost camel,

Disheveled, covered in grime, his saddlebags equal.

نحيفُ الشَّوى بالي السَّرابيل مرملٌ

قليلُ التَّصابي ساهمُ الوجه قاحله

Bleary, like wine skins, and stinking,

Jostled by his young she-camels, their necklaces pulling.

يطوفُ بغُضفٍ كالحاتٍ شوازب

مسوجرةٍ شعثٍ ضوارِ تشاكلهْ

So he released them from their hobbles, returning,

Sure that they were his defenders in the fight.

مُهرَّتةٍ مثل السَّراحينِ وقحٍ

تُجاذبها أمْراسُه وسَلالهْ

And she prompted and called to him from behind,

Charging at him again and again, unrelenting.

فحلَّل من أسيارِهنّ مُؤلياً

عَليه يَقيناً أنهُنَّ قَواِتلهْ

When he realized she was unveiling her face,

With a rectangular strip of cloth, her fine muslin veils.

فأوحى وأوحت خلفهُ مشْمَعلَّةٌ

تصارمهُ طوراً وطوراً تواصلهْ

He imagined and was too shy because of the honor, and turned away,

Like the glance of a linked arrow, glancing off a solid surface.

فُمذْ أدركتْهُ وهو يكسو وجوهها

براقعَ نقعٍ مستطيلٍ قساطلهْ

He rammed her with the point of his spear,

As the owl rams the drinking doves at a watering hole.

تخيَّلَ واستحيا من الفرّ وانَثنى

كما مرَّ سهم رابطُ الجأش باسلهْ

And he stabbed her first with a raging blow,

Spilling her insides with his effective blade.

يُسّفدُها دعساً بإبرة روْقهِ

كماشكَّ في سَفودِ شَرْبِ خرادلهْ

Another came upon him and pierced him with his spear,

So he fell, and all his joints were immobilized.

وَبادَر أشقاها بِطعنةِ ثَاِئْر

فضرَّجَ بالمكنون دفيهِ فاعلهْ

Misfortune then finished him off, as the doomed man perished,

Misfortune destroys the man of ill fate in haste.

ووافاه ثانٍ فأتَّقاهُ بِروقهِ

فخرَّ وقَد مجَّتْ بجيعاً مفاصلهْ

Then a fourth one depended, when he attacked him,

On the expert wielder of spears, his weapon at the ready.

وعاجلهُ إذ ذاكَ ضروّ فَساطَهُ

وقدْ يهلك المرءَ المواشك عاجلهْ

So they fled like flooding wadis, the horses stampeding dispersed,

As they had fled from the darkness of a fiery, churning sea.

وَناط اعتماداً رَابعاً حين ناشَهُ

على لهذميّ عامل الرُّمح عاملهْ

But he startled them when they scattered in alarm,

Though they had carried the violence of his hands as burdens.

ففرَّت شلالاً تنهبُ الجريُ شُرَّداً

كما فرَّ من ظلِمانِ ذي قارَ جافلهْ

So they returned, and the lone singular man returned animated,

Plucking at them with whatever parts of him could manage it.

فَنحنحَها لمَّا ابذعَّرت بصلقهٍ

وقد حَملت بأسا يديه أياطلهْ

When the dogs saw there was no escape

For their dogs, and the bull was charging fiercely,

فعادت فعادَ الأخنسُ الفردُ عامرٌ

يُجدَّلُ من أذمارها ما يعاجلهْ

They called them, and they poured down on him from all sides,

Eight earnest ones besetting him from every side.

فَلما رأى الكلاَّبُ أن لا سلامةٌ

لأكلبهِ والثَّورَ قد جدَّ هازلهْ

So he turned and fled the circle of troughs, defeated,

Bearing a distress that tearing could not diminish for him.

دَعاهنَّ فانصبتْ عليه لواقحاً

ثمانيةٌ مُستوْقَصاتٍ تُقابلهْ

Is this so? Or did I whip the criticizers, muted,

Confused, his honor shredded, his shoulders burdened?

فوَلى انبتاتَ الدَّلوانِ خانَ ماتحاً

لَها كَربٌ لم يأله الفتل فاتلهْ

Beside five locks of the Zanj’s hair that had captured him,

Ringlets of those like him, none equaling his perfections.

أذلكَ أم شَخْتُ الشّوامتِ مفحمٌ

هبلٌّ أثيثُ الزفِّ شمٌّ كواهلهْ

I travelled the miles of every desolate expanse,

For a matter I undertake despite the kings’ disapproval.

لدى فروةٍ خمسٍ من الزنج حَفَّهُ

طماطمُ من أشباههِ ما تزايلهْ

And a blond entertainer whose cup I disputed,

More delicious than the finest wine, her beauty apparent.

رَعى الآء والتنوُّم حتى كأنهُ

بعلياءَ بيتٍ شيدَ للبدو مائلهْ

And a white woman, pure as a virgin, I courted her,

And her family, while the night lay green, concealing us.

يزجيَّهِ للأدْحيّ ليلٌ وحاصبٌ

وذو برد مغلنفط الودق هاطلهْ

So she said, “You’ve persisted in this shameful slander against me,

While theLiving never sleeps, nor is unaware.”

تُغاليهِ في الأيغالِ سقْفاءُ صعلةٌ

جَراوّيةٌّ تترى لها فتُعاجلهْ

So I kissed her mouth as she pulled away,

Her tears watering the stream, pouring down.

عِراصٌ لبيض بينَ قيضٍ لدمنهٍ

تقيّض عن مثلِ العراجين كاملهْ

Warily and anxiously she said with a moan,

Turning away in fear, as tears wet her eyeliner,

جزعتُ بِه أميالَ كلِّ مفازةٍ

لامرٍ على رغم الملوك أحاولهْ

“You’ve avoided us five times, so we said perhaps

His heart has turned away from us and shortened his rope.”

وعانية صهباء نازعتُ كأسها

أغرّ كريم الخلّ حلواً شمائلهْ

I said, “God forbid that I forget you, and passion

Leads the young man willingly to your thresholds.”

وبيضاءَ كالبيضَاءِ بِكراً طَرقُتها

وأترابها والليلُ خُضرٌ كلا لهْ

So when the Pleiades receded, I returned going back,

My endeavor alternating between speed and delay.

فقالتْ أبيت اللَّعن أنكَ فَاضحي

بِزَوركَ لي والحيُّ لم يغفُ غافلهْ

Oh, the army I crashed into with my resolve,

And it burst into tears at our separation!

فقبّلتُ فَاهَا هاصراً بقرونها

ومدمعُها يسقي المورد هاطلهْ

Oh, the adversary I brought down, though he feared me,

And his tribes became dearer after that disgrace!

حذاراً واشفاقاً وقالتْ بِزفرةٍ

على وجلٍ والدمعُ يستنُّ هاملهْ

Oh, the surging tribe whose evil I held back from the mouth of demise

By my grace, so after being parched, its rivers flowed!

تجنبتنا خَمْساً فَقُلْنا لَعلهُ

صحا قَلبُه عنا واَقصرَ باطلهْ

I supported the land during its days,

And were it not for me, it would have ended while still consuming it.

فقلتُ مَعاذَ الله أنساكِ والهَوى

يقود الفتى طوعاً إليكِ سلالهْ

And the empowered king who vexes the envious, I embraced him

With a whiteness that did not touch me, for which his favors are owed me!

فلما انثنى الديجوُر اعقْبَتُ رَاجعاً

ارايثُ سَعيي تَارةً وأعاجلهْ

فيا رُبَّ جيشٍ كالُّلهام صدمتُه

بعزمي فَقامت بالبكاءِ ثواكلهْ

ويا رُبَّ خصمٍ قد أبرت وخائفٍ

أجرتُ فعزَّتْ بعد ذلٍ قبائلهْ

ومدفع قومٍ نُشتُه من فمِّ الرَّدَى

بفضلي ففَاضتْ بعد غورٍ جداولهْ

فآض قوياً آكلاً بيَ دهْرَه

ولولايَ أمسى دهرُه وهو آكلهْ

ومُللكٍ يغيظ الحاسدين اْحتَويتُه

بأبيضَ لَم تحصل عليّ حَمائلهْ