Sol 5.6

  1. Ah, who will succor a body dwelling at al-Thawiyya,

    and a heart departing with the Hijazi caravan?

  2. I yearn for Su‘da, though between me and her abode stands

    a swordsman striking with his sword, followed by a piercing spear.

  3. Whatever else I forget, never shall I forget the farewell, when she gazed

    toward us with an eye whose languid glance bewitched.

  4. Hers was a hurried glance amid the bewilderment of parting,

    like the gaze of a terrified gazelle-mother upon her fawn.

  5. At our parting-place were those who wept and those who laughed,

    those who had forgotten and those who grieved, the faithful and the false.

  6. Thus it was hidden from no watcher, talebearer, or secret foe:

    a deep-set trace of consuming passion, lurking within the breast.

  7. My tears, plainly visible between my eyelids, betrayed to them

    a longing hidden deep within my breast.

  8. Yet though passion stirs me,

    I am a man of mettle, a severer of bonds.

  9. I seek the heights while my blood stains the sword,

    with a bright, cleaving blade and a supple brown spear.

  10. When adversities dealt harshly with me, I clung

    to an awe-inspiring man, stout of forearm, who meets harshness with harshness.

  11. When they imposed humiliation upon him, his defiance blazed,

    and they retreated before a fiercely stubborn, implacable adversary.

  12. If I am robbed of my Umayyad pride

    by ordeals I endure, then I am no son of a chaste woman.

Sol 5.6