Sol 6.1

  1. Slumber came by night with beautiful women, and sometimes

    slumber came by night with terrors from them.

  2. A dream traveled by night after sleep and visited me,

    from Umm Bakr, late at night, in a phantom's form.

  3. It journeyed by night to a disheveled sleeper in a wilderness,

    with the phantom of a languid woman, gentle in her night journey.

  4. So I reveled for a night like a man of ease and pleasure,

    like one whose eye is soothed, or whose mind is at peace,

  5. with an innocent girl whose youthful form luxury had filled out,

    hungry at her sash, well-fed at her anklet,

  6. in a perfected form, her physique made complete,

    for those who gaze, like the form of a statue.

  7. Perfect and complete for anyone who describes women,

    enough for you are her beauty and loveliness,

  8. and charm in soft, lilting speech

    from her, and in lovely languor and coyness.

  9. She gazes with the eye of a wild-cow calf in a thicket,

    and with a radiant, lovely face and a gazelle's neck,

  10. and flowing, wavy hair whose braids seem,

    in their length, to be joined to ropes.

  11. No green meadow whose blossoms gleam,

    at al-Qahr, among sand tracts and dunes,

  12. for which spring rejoiced and whose vegetation flourished,

    and which grew beneath a black cloud pouring abundant rain,

  13. until its plants grew intertwined, as though they were

    the colors of ornaments brightened by burnishing,

  14. from which the east wind swept rainless clouds, and which shone

    in the sun after cloudy gloom and light rain,

  15. is ever lovelier than you in its splendid appearance,

    between late afternoon and the coming of evening,

  16. in beauty, nor more delightful than you when

    some stars have declined and others follow.

  17. She satisfies her bedmate when he desires her embrace,

    with a mouth sweet to taste, pure and refreshing,

  18. clear and glistening, as though she smiled with it

    after a morning shower, on a north-wind morning,

  19. cool, as though the crushed fragments of snow were mixed

    with pure first-pressed wine, free of its crimson tint,

  20. tawny and clear, whose merchants descended

    to Sarkhad's paved court from mountain summits,

  21. from the vine's wine, its seal broken,

    so the wine-jar stands among large jars and pitchers,

  22. of wine that wafted fragrance, as though its inhaled scent

    were musk diffusing on a north-wind morning,

  23. or the wine of a pearl-adorned man who stays crowned

    for the drinkers, tawny-haired, his tunic drawn up.

  24. Such is her breath when you awaken her,

    and her skin is neither grimy nor foul-smelling.

  25. So leave the beautiful women and songs that tell of her,

    and turn to recounting noble virtues and deeds.

  26. We surely lead our noble steeds on aching hooves,

    toward the enemy, with heroes who kindle war,

  27. in every clamorous host, whose mass is like

    night spreading across, or mountain spurs,

  28. a dark, dense host that leaves the open plain choked,

    like a black mountain heaped with heavy loads.

  29. Between its vanguard and the rear of its gathered host

    lies a measured day's journey and a muleteer's night.

  30. A vast host, at whose edges the piebald horses

    are sought by feeling about and asking.

  31. And we traverse the frontier whose passes are feared,

    on long-bodied, tall steeds with sleek backs,

  32. narrow-eyed, as though their bits were hung

    on Rudayna's spears, or the tree trunks of Awal.

  33. We lead every fleet mare in the early forenoon,

    and the reins of every resonant, loud-neighing steed,

  34. of every black horse, its blackness like a raven's,

    a noble steed, and a chestnut, leather-hued and fleet,

  35. given drink in spring, carefully tended, never stinted:

    pure milk from late-pregnant she-camels, and sour milk from those nearly dry.

  36. And the raiding-ground drew near for them; they were lean,

    amid the riding camels, as though they were far-flying arrows.

  37. They walk, after being long led on sore hooves,

    toward the enemy, with the gait of children,

  38. or like dogs treading on caltrop burrs,

    or with their gait when treading sayal-acacia thorns.

  39. They emerge from banks of dust as though they were

    eagles on a day of cloud and light rain.

  40. Horses whose leading troop, when they are roused, seems

    linked to troop after troop as it heads toward the foe.

  41. And many an adorned warrior, on whose head the mighty lord had bound

    the crown of kings, they brought back in fetters,

  42. and many a field of charge and combat, whose defenders they left

    for the birds, on low ground and high,

  43. slain, among whom the birds keep hopping,

    pecking at their eyes as well as their limbs.

  44. How many people's spoils they have seized,

    and brought back livestock and encamped tribes as booty!

  45. Tousled of forelock, their customary work is

    shedding blood and dividing wealth.

  46. So they were left, having fulfilled in battle's fury

    their desire, and ranged there through every arena.

Sol 6.1