Sol 6.1

  1. Desist, for Time will not desist,

    until it folds the foremost together with the hindmost.

  2. It brought Luqman ibn ʿAd to his end, after

    his youth had brought seven vultures to their end.

  3. And it seized al-Dahhak from behind the spears

    and the Mashrafi swords and the larger host.

  4. And Jadhimah al-Waddah—it left his crown bereft

    of him, and made al-Mundhir follow Tubbaʿ.

  5. And when I recall the sons of ʿUbayd, they enslave

    pure tears to the anguish of remembrance.

  6. Time's calamities devoured them; blunted

    was their might's keen edge by the turns of the ages.

  7. After they had been the stars of Tayy

    in number, they became the crescent moons of Buhtur.

  8. They dwindled, but the thunderbolts of their fire did not dwindle,

    in volleys across the desert of the foe who ventures into the open.

  9. And I see that their grudges never die down

    in one clan without blazing up in another.

  10. Gently, sons of Shamlal! Your coming

    to the pool of broken ties offers no easy way out.

  11. What ails you, assailing one another with eyes

    whose glances hold the blazing embers of ghada wood?

  12. You tug at glory with arrogant force,

    and arrogance among nobles is a reprehensible thing.

  13. Contention for leadership is a lapse

    that cannot be pardoned, and a call left unsupported.

  14. Their excess destroyed the forebears of Jurhum

    in this strife, and swiftly ravaged the chieftains of Himyar.

  15. So disengage before you fight to the finish

    over a clear watering place and a desolate dwelling,

  16. until bones shatter in Jabir

    by night, and eyes in Mus-hir lie sleepless.

  17. And remember the war of ruin, and what it milked

    for the two Abrahahs of bitter, turbid brine.

  18. They removed Jadilah from a wide expanse

    and thick-treed gardens and green meadowland.

  19. And among the marvels is that the rancor in your breasts

    was not quenched by the most momentous calamity:

  20. the loss of Abu ʿUbayd, followed

    by Abu Humayd after him, and Mubashshir.

  21. And had they been chipped away from the crags of Aʿfar,

    Aʿfar's summits would have fallen in fragments, one after another.

  22. They were three seas, brought

    by Death's obsession into three graves.

  23. And I see Shumayl and Bariʿ, bound for death,

    both stooping; whoever lives long grows old.

  24. They now lean upon spear-shafts, after once bearing spears

    in an army bearing down upon another army.

  25. Two old men: weapons have grown heavy upon them,

    and the judgment of the keen-eared, clear-eyed has deserted them.

  26. They are not called upon for a combatant's stratagem

    on the day of battle, nor for a strategist's cunning.

  27. Absent from what concerns you, yet not beyond

    the reach of eyes; present, yet not truly present.

  28. Or do you not see the gloaters before you

    and behind you, whether hiding it or showing it,

  29. for no fault you have committed, save the lofty,

    radiant honors of your bright-browed, resplendent forefather?

  30. And it is as though a nobleman's honor, when he declares his lineage,

    were a crime he had committed against the lowly, lesser man.

Sol 6.1