Sol 6

  1. O Ahar, son of Abd, the tears come rushing forth.

    And al-Jadd's bone now lies in splints.

  2. Vultures come to Ibn Ba'aj, as though they were

    An assembly seeking a pledge from a merchant.

  3. They circle a man of Kalb with a strip of flesh upon him,

    Long of back, and toss him into their gullets.

  4. One who knows his story says of him:

    Such is God's retribution against every wicked man.

  5. It is as though the remnants of Ibn Ba'aj's army

    Had gathered around a proud crag of Amaya.

  6. And slender white blades, now overlaid with age,

    Cure the thirst that lies within watching eyes.

  7. When driven through the thickest helmets, they reach

    The sockets of the rearmost grinding teeth.

  8. When the sacred month has passed, bid farewell

    To Tamim's lands, and make for the land of Amir.

  9. And praise the two clans, Amr and Malik,

    With praise that reaches them in highland and lowland.

  10. They are generous when you meet them as a stranger,

    And refrain from harming the house of a neighboring stranger.

  11. We drive the pale camels across al-Hawm and range through

    Its pastures on lean, hardy mounts.

  12. On sleek mounts whose coverings have been fitted,

    With winter guests and the youngest sons.

  13. You found the tribe's grazing herds guarded before them

    By heroic riders, slender at the waist.

  14. When our horsemen met their men,

    They cried, 'For Kalb!' and we proclaimed our kinship with Amir.

  15. She plays with the young oryx using her young,

    At Ithbit and then the sandy ground of al-Abatir.

  16. We scattered them in the days of Ithbit, after

    We had slaked our burning thirst with bloodstained spears.

  17. She grazed at Khufaf when every dark rain cloud

    Broke open its stores and loosed its waters.

  18. They kept Hubayy to their right and veered away from

    Kubays, setting out early to drink at Da'ida.

  19. The herdsman held them a little while at Kala and La,

    At Lawdhan, or wherever they settled at al-Karakir.

  20. When they climbed the stony rise, they covered its breadth

    As a butcher's knife covers a bone.

  21. You see the tall, slender young females among her calves,

    Startled toward the ribs of a bold left-handed one.

  22. Did news of our encampment reach the people at al-Jarib,

    And the people above Ghamra and at al-Abatir?

  23. They left the men of al-Unzuwan to be visited

    By the hyenas of Khufaf beyond al-Abatir.

  24. Where the sand did not stretch across its flanks,

    They crossed its every barren, hard-bellied tract.

  25. And every Rudayni spear, when shaken, made

    Its shafts quiver between the thickened joints.

  26. At al-Muntasa, they found only a herd of wild asses

    At Hashraj, striking it with their hooves.

  27. They answered Milyah; their yearning cries sounded

    Just before dawn prayer like a flute player's repeated notes.

  28. They had not yet drunk their fill when their water drawers made out

    A short, tightly woven rope of descending palm fiber.

Sol 6