Sol 6.1

  1. Yours is not the glory of the Taghlibi, for whom

    God built his glory among the lofty, high-crested mountains.

  2. Nor have you what Lujaym builds, when he builds

    on pillars of those mountains, towering in height.

  3. Nor that of the Thaʿlabis, whose spears

    are strongholds for newly delivered women hurrying onward.

  4. And what has deceived a dog of Kulayb about a serpent—

    deaf, with venom entwined about its fangs,

  5. a smooth rock's fosterling in a cleft, whose spittle is

    death's poisons—black in hue, pitch-dark?

  6. Where it touches the earth as it moves, you see

    fissures that have swept away the crests of the low sandhills.

  7. Sons of al-Khatafa, name a peer of Darim

    and his two paternal uncles—or name a father like Malik.

  8. And if not, then snarl at Darim: indeed, Darim

    has made an ancient one kneel, broad in its kneeling-places,

  9. one of the illustrious, beyond the reach

    of short-necked beasts standing on their hoof-tips.

  10. You do not belong to them, Jarir, so do not be

    like one courting death, who has given his hand to deadly perils.

  11. You fell short of Saʿd, so you are not one of them,

    nor do you belong to that mighty multitude.

  12. Kulayb delouses donkeys, while Darim

    rides pale camels, folding silk above the saddle-rests.

  13. And you were sons of her arse, with the misleading schemer—

    Jarir—and travelers of the worst paths:

  14. frogs whom a stagnant pool deceived, so they drew back

    from the sea, from its waves following one upon another.

Sol 6.1