1. The heart has sobered, save for women in howdahs; I was outstripped

    by a lord who claimed them for himself and took them upcountry.

  2. They brought up the camels for departure, and they were adorned

    with red from Iraqi lac and with black.

  3. They flew off with wild creatures that will not yield to you once

    the hawk's leap to hunt has drawn near.

  4. Heading for the marshes—the marshes of Hamiz—

    they roused sandgrouse that, but for their night journey, would have slept.

  5. They enter the desert when it cannot be traversed

    by the sheep-keepers of Awf ibn Bakr and Ahwad.

  6. Whenever I said, “They have drawn alongside, or a favor is near,”

    they bounded toward the farthest landmark in sight.

  7. Whenever you wished to be amused by some of their talk,

    they made their homeborn attendants mount and dismount.

  8. They told their camel-driver, “For pity's sake, sing to us

    of Hadra or al-Kinani's daughter, across the broad plain.”

  9. They rest at noon when summer faces a blaze of heat,

    and scorches the scant-watered well until it runs dry.

  10. My soul never clung to Umm Muhallim

    and Dahma except to wander love-mad and waste away in grief.

  11. Whenever my heart is close to recovery, there rise before it

    the burdens of youthful passion for them, and it wavers again.

  12. I see al-Fazra only by peering,

    and in fear: the sons of Umm Ajrad guard her.

  13. And I, on the morning when Umm Malik broke into tears,

    was indeed content that the ruler should merely threaten.

  14. Had it not been for Yazid, son of kings, and his bounty,

    I would have been shrouded in a gaunt, grievous calamity.

  15. How often your ropes have saved me from a deep well

    and a mute calamity that would stun an elephant if hurled at it!

  16. On the day at Jillaq he warded off from me an overwhelming peril

    and a sorrow that made me forget the mellowed, pure wine.

  17. He spent the night in Damascus in secret counsel with a serpent

    whose bite lets no victim linger alive, but kills outright.

  18. He would soothe him at times, and at others, when he saw

    a receptive look upon his face, he pressed his plea and strove hard.

  19. Abu Khalid, you warded off a great calamity from me,

    and rescued my flesh before it could be scattered.

  20. You quenched Nu'man's fire against me after

    he had hurried toward a futile undertaking and devoted himself to it.

  21. When al-Nu'man saw before me the son of a freeborn woman,

    he turned away, since he could not overpower me, and fled.

  22. And he met a man whose covenant no people break,

    who twisted the strands tight against slanderers and bound them fast.

  23. A man of trust whom his guest never finds distasteful,

    nor aloof from him when he offers friendship.

  24. It is as though those in need approach an unbroken camel,

    shaggy beneath the neck, two-humped, and stiff-legged.

  25. He raged as war's stallion until it bowed

    before him; he mounted it in gray-haired age and beardless youth.

  26. In war, Quraysh found no one to serve its cause

    more upright, more faithful, or more glorious than your father,

  27. or tougher of timber when its affairs grew straitened

    and Ma'add was about to shrink back and be extinguished.

  28. Or better at kindling his two fire-sticks; had it been another,

    on the morning of discord, he would have struck in vain, without a spark.

  29. So after him you became its patron among men,

    and of Quraysh the worthiest to be feared and praised.

  30. In every horizon you have hurled a star

    of war, dreaded whenever it blazes.

  31. And the mountains of al-Awayr shine with a man of deeds

    who kindles fire when the fires die down at night,

  32. and an avenger whose devastating blows no one feels safe from,

    nor from the assailant's fury when he threatens.

  33. No foaming flood rising over the islands of Hamiz,

    cutting its way toward them through reeds and boxthorn,

  34. from which the people of Ana took shelter after

    it clothed their upper wall in piled-up debris,

  35. bucking beneath the sailor until he is worn down by the

    fear, though he is vigilant and seasoned,

  36. with dark, unceasing waves, as though

    it sped the great ships along like ostriches driven onward,

  37. as though the water's daughters along its margins

    were ewers Diyaf had sent as gifts to Sarkhad,

  38. is more lavish in bounty than Yazid, when at dawn

    his Bactrian camels bear him, carrying kingship and lordship.

  39. He lifts the sword whose baldric is long,

    slim-bellied when his tunic is torn away from him.

  40. So I swore never, through all time, to forget his bounty

    on the morning at al-Sayala: what he gave me to savor and take as provision.

Sol 6.1