Sol 6.1

  1. Subayra settled at the waters of al-‘Idad, though once

    she used to camp with Tukud the nearest of her abodes.

  2. Today al-Thamad stands deserted of those who dwelt there,

    then al-Shu‘batan, then that solitary al-Abraq.

  3. At al-Sarima, a worn-out dwelling of hers remains,

    effaced and altered, save the encircling ditch and tent-peg.

  4. A home of a charming woman, far distant to visit,

    with enemies and watchers standing between us and her.

  5. A woman of Bakr, my home was not near hers,

    nor does Subayra shun those whose hearts she has enthralled.

  6. Would that the sister of Banu Dubb were brought back by

    the turns of separation, so the sore, sleepless eye might sleep.

  7. Her fate now lies in a land that nothing can reach,

    bearing the sorrowful man, except a sturdy, firm-built she-camel.

  8. When gazelles seek shelter in their own shadows,

    the short-winged, crooked-legged ostriches cannot match her pace.

  9. As though she were a white-flanked wild bull, frightened

    by lean, droop-eared hounds with leather straps around their necks.

  10. He drove the hunting hounds off with his two horns and charged back, as

    a valiant spearman drives a battalion away from him.

  11. Or a water-seeking wild ass at al-‘Ura, whose pastures withered,

    and whose trusted pools and scant waters betrayed him.

  12. He grazed at ‘Unaza until its grasshopper shrilled,

    and a scorching, blazing day dissipated the water.

  13. Amid lean she-asses like nab‘-wood arrow shafts, he bites them,

    until grudges and quarrels are forgotten.

  14. He drives them at a pace that none can withstand,

    neither mothers followed by foals nor barren females among them.

  15. As though, after the long run, when they caught up—

    their foals—and his guts drew taut, he were a twisted rope.

  16. Until he reached at evening a spring where always waited

    watchmen from al-Akhadir or from Rasib.

  17. Greasy-turbaned and gaunt, with no flesh on them,

    when they sense a figure appearing, they crouch low.

  18. At its watering places, a hungry man waits for

    a sight of them, fearing their retreat, heartsick.

  19. Until, when they gave him a clear shot at their vital parts,

    while he stood deliberate with a curved nab‘-wood bow,

  20. he loosed at them a broad-headed arrow like a meteor, but did not

    kill outright, though the stout wild ass nearly met its death.

  21. They turned away from him in haste, the beat of their legs

    like hail falling beneath a sudden shower.

  22. O son of the two chiefs, had your bounty not

    already embraced me, no one would have answered me when I called.

  23. You came to my rescue after it slipped—

    my sandal—and the lion had bared his fangs.

  24. And from another deadly ordeal there rescued me

    one like a Rudayni spear, neither weak nor crooked.

  25. Splendid are his mother's kin, his mother's kin of Kalb,

    and splendid what peoples begot when they begot him.

  26. A hawk: the noblest birds remain humbled

    before him, while curlews and ground-hugging birds flutter.

  27. You see delegations seeking a man whose gifts are lavish;

    when they seek him for a worthy purpose, they find what they need.

  28. When I stumble, there comes to me from his generous gifts

    a bounty by which fetters and knots are loosened.

  29. No foolish talk is heard circulating in their assembly,

    nor is folly among Umayya's qualities.

  30. Their fortunes are perfected, and God has favored them,

    while the fortune of other people is lowly and ill-starred.

  31. They are the ones whose prayer God answered

    when the horses' forelocks met and they clashed in battle.

  32. Other people's hands cannot attain their munificence,

    nor can people's scheming undo what they have bound.

  33. A people whose favors, whenever they bestow them, are

    a bounty from God, without boastful reminders or envy.

  34. I have indeed found a station with ‘Abd Allah

    where there is escape from poverty and a source of support.

  35. As though he were a foaming, brimming river, sought for sustenance,

    foam rising over the islands along its banks.

  36. Until you see every bend it has pressed against,

    as though the weathered trees there were striped rugs.

  37. The daughters of the water linger there in whispering groups,

    and along its sides grow yanbut and hasad plants.

  38. Its watering approaches are easy; the circling ones drink their fill there.

    When the thirsty see its gleaming waters, they come to drink.

  39. May God grant lasting benefit through those people who

    freed the captives, and from whom bounty came to us.

  40. And on the day of Qays's picked troop, when you were pitted against them,

    wretched mothers bereaved by your assault wailed.

  41. They stayed all day, while death's cloud kept raining upon them,

    until a cold cloud-bank moved away from them.

  42. And the Mashrafi swords, like lightning flashes, have

    furrows in every skull or helmet.

  43. And on the day of Siffin, with eyes downcast,

    aid from their Lord reinforced them when they prayed,

  44. against those who unjustly killed ‘Uthman;

    no entreaty kept them from him, though they were implored.

  45. There the eyes of those avenging him were comforted,

    and they settled every blood-debt demanding retaliation.

  46. A dark-green battalion never ceased crushing them,

    lamenting Ibn ‘Affan, until the quarry became vulnerable.

  47. You are the people of a house no other

    house can rival when ancestral honors and numbers are counted.

  48. Your hands rise above other people's hands in bounty,

    and neither graybeards nor beardless youths can match you.

  49. Their brows do not scowl on a cloud-dark morning,

    nor do they stint a guest's fare, even when their means are drained.

  50. A people who, when wealthy peoples grow stingy,

    or dread the beggars' presence, or refuse them,

  51. vie with Jumada with their heaped shiza-wood bowls,

    containing two mingled foods: rich fat and liver.

  52. The givers of food when a wind from al-Sham blows,

    dust-gray, whose bitterly cold gusts make one seek shelter.

  53. And if you ask Quraysh about its foremost men,

    they are its crest, its highest men, and its support.

  54. Even if the bounty of all people were gathered,

    people's gifts would still fall short of what they have given.

  55. So the Muslims fare well as long as they have you,

    and there is no good after you, when you are gone.

Sol 6.1