Sol 6.1

  1. Did you not turn aside and ask the household of Lahw,

    and Arwa, al-Mudilla, and al-Rabab,

  2. about happy days gone by,

    and pleasures that remind me of youth?

  3. I stayed with them, and they kindled a fire,

    for a little while, then hastened away.

  4. Delicate women who never summered at the well of Maql,

    nor drove a raven off a pack-camel.

  5. And when they went into the desert at summer's onset,

    they pitched domed tents beside al-Hafr.

  6. It was as though fine robes lay over gazelles of Falj,

    on the morning they donned their clothes for parting.

  7. So, aboard ships, they parted from their camp companions,

    ships that cleaved rough waves with them aboard.

  8. You see the boatman girded with palm fiber,

    heading with them toward thickets and reed beds.

  9. When the busy man's short breeches rode up,

    they turned away, not wishing to rebuke him.

  10. The water roars beneath the obedient ships,

    pounding the pitch and the solid timbers.

  11. They swim in it upon their breasts,

    though an elephant driven into it would quail.

  12. When he forces them into a narrow passage,

    while the water's swell drives the foam along,

  13. in succession like a lone man's camel herd, gathering

    toward its foremost beast when the herdsman calls.

  14. They settle where riding-camels are stung,

    fearing neither gnats nor flies.

  15. When they cast the ships' anchors, they disembark,

    creeping like captives hastening toward the mountain passes.

  16. The swaying reeds parted before them,

    when they journeyed far, and he had relished the drink,

  17. on nights when the Pleiades met the dawn,

    and every noonday heat kindled a blaze.

  18. O Fatima, show yourself before death;

    death is estrangement and avoidance enough.

  19. You flashed your cheeks, but bestowed nothing,

    and that was no recompense for kindness.

  20. Likewise, Umm Bishr broke her promise to us,

    though she had bared gleaming, sweet teeth,

  21. spaced apart, from which the thirsty man drinks his fill,

    when Orion drives the lizards into their burrows.

  22. And Mudilla said, when she came to loathe me:

    "I see you have grown old, and both your temples are gray."

  23. Even if my youthful prime has left me,

    with it I have quenched the herd afire with thirst.

  24. And when they came to water at their thirsting interval's end,

    I readied full buckets for each thirsty one circling.

  25. I drive the foreign-tongued ones away from it,

    and grant it to the unmixed, pure Arabian ones.

  26. And two circling, thirsty ones, seeking my secret—

    I made my heart a barrier before them.

  27. And I kept company awhile with a comrade in youthful passion;

    so today I have repented of folly, and so has he.

  28. And death's fates lie in wait for a man's soul,

    and descend around him until he is struck.

  29. When commanded against him, they unleash upon him

    their sharpest weapons—claw and fang.

  30. And I know that before long

    they will clothe me in stones or dust.

  31. So, if anyone asks about the sons of Sa‘id,

    then ‘Abd Allah is the noblest of them in lineage.

  32. You ascended the highest crests of Quraysh,

    and if they divide into branches, you rise above the branches.

  33. The seas among the sons of Umayya bequeathed him

    burdens of surety and bounteous teats.

  34. And you unite Nawfal and the sons of ‘Akabb—

    both clans; whoever gains them prospers.

  35. And true roots from among us have brought you forth,

    when years of drought made the dogs howl.

  36. One of the young men, not elated by worldly gain,

    nor dismayed when time's calamities strike.

  37. A radiant man from the gravelly valleys of Quraysh,

    through him the Arabs ask the clouds for rain.

Sol 6.1