Sol 5.6

  1. Is that weeping woman yonder the daughter of Sakhr?

    There is no one weeping tonight but she.

  2. Abu Hassan has perished—ah, my grief!

    And Sakhr was lord of al-ʿĀliya, the highlands.

  3. Alas, how pitiable I am—woe is me!

    when the mourning woman raised her far-carrying voice.

  4. I called the truth a lie, though it had roused my fears,

    until the wailing cry rose above our tents

  5. for the sweet-natured, trustworthy lord, in whom

    refuge is sought through the assailing year of drought.

  6. Yet some men are utter cowards,

    men among their tribe whom no desert-dweller envies.

  7. He neither speaks of generosity nor so much as hints at it—

    that aloof man—nor does he advance with a raiding band.

  8. If the cooking pot is set up for him in his house,

    the seekers of bounty gather around another's.

  9. But my brother was awe-inspiring, a man of mettle;

    from one like him every seeker asks support.

  10. He uttered no shameful word before a freeborn woman;

    carefree, he put himself to the test amid deadly peril.

  11. Indeed, my brother was no mere herdsman—

    no craven, empty-hearted owner of livestock.

  12. His sword was a gleaming white blade, full of luster,

    like lightning flashing anew in a night-roving raincloud.

  13. Astride a swift-breasted mount, full of spirited dash,

    he led the foremost of the resolute bands.

  14. There is no good in life, though it delights us,

    for Time leaves nothing in it that endures.

  15. Every man in whom his family rejoices

    will one day be seen lying cast aside.

  16. O you who see among our people a horseman,

    amid the cavalry, borne at a gallop by a full-maned mare:

  17. beneath him is a deep-chested dark bay, just as

    the robe of a slender Yemeni woman is wrapped in folds.

  18. When overtaken from behind, she cries out,

    like a man's grazing herd setting forth at dawn.

  19. He turns them back with thrusts among them, as

    one breaches the remaining rim of a collecting cistern.

  20. They swoop when released from a watering place,

    like an eagle emerging from the pitch-black gloom.

  21. He meets them with a dark Rudaynian spear,

    fiery, with a keen and piercing head.

  22. The smith steeped it as he sharpened its point,

    until death-dealing venom coursed within it.

  23. Where can we find his equal, now that he is lost to us—

    for the cavalry when it wheels, and for the charging host?

  24. I swear he would never remain seated in a town

    remote and far from his people;

  25. he would set straight out upon his way,

    and neither man nor woman could restrain him.

Sol 5.6