Sol 6.1

  1. Umama saddled her camels for departure,

    so that she might leave, though you do not wish her to go.

  2. And even if Umama has parted, or has substituted

    another love for yours, you have not severed her bonds.

  3. And even if Umama has bid you farewell and has not betrayed

    what you knew, you will surely remember your union with her.

  4. Linger at campsite ruins whose habitation is long past,

    in al-Jawf; time has snatched away their dwellers.

  5. Ruins of the slayer of handsome youths; nothing is there

    but wild beasts, alone with it, and it alone with them.

  6. She came early to ask a lovesick man's family about him,

    yet she was the very one who had wrought her deeds upon him.

  7. She would show you, when you looked at her from the front,

    where her necklaces lay, and sometimes her anklet.

  8. Leave what has passed with her; for many a wine—

    tawny, its smooth-flowing draught free of specks—

  9. I sought out at daybreak upon high ground,

    and unloaded its burdens, save its saddlecloths.

  10. And I served it at dawn to bright-faced, handsome youths

    of mighty Taghlib, not its lowly men.

  11. Away with you, Jarir! We are a people

    who have reached the sky—its stars and its crescent.

  12. No king has sought us out to straighten our spearshaft

    without our ravaging his cavalry and its men.

Sol 6.1