Sol 6

  1. Lamī became estranged from us after knowing us,

    and after youthful affection and honored youth,

  2. and after our nights in the valley of Suwayqa,

    then at Bāʿijat al-Qirdān, then al-Mutathallam.

  3. I had not feared that goodwill between us would wear away

    at the heights of al-Qalīb, then al-Raqī, then ʿAyham.

  4. So go on to Mayyāṭ; or, if you wish, enjoy

    a good morning, restore our bond, and be safe.

  5. But if it can only be as you said, then tell me

    of a severance; you have sought only to break it off.

  6. By my life, I made things clear on the day of Suwayqa

    to anyone with sense, by the direction of Mansim.

  7. No, by my God, I have betrayed no pledge,

    and my father before me was beyond reproach.

  8. He draws from its sheath a bright, sharp sword,

    plain to the discerning observer’s eye.

  9. He is generous and gives wealth without stinginess,

    and strikes the nose of the foolish aggressor.

  10. He pitches his tents on rugged ground and level ground

    for any seeker of refuge or benefactor who comes to him,

  11. at a place like the sandy rise of al-Qanāfidh, setting

    a shelter there like a lion lying in its thicket.

  12. Beside Ḥubayy for two nights, as though

    he were warding off ill luck or drawing lots with arrows.

  13. He rattles them twice, then casts them out,

    as rough-hewn arrows are cast before being straightened.

  14. They took their fill of a drink at Dhāt al-Shuqūq,

    and kept pace from the heights of Jufāf through a mountain pass.

  15. At dawn they came upon Banū ʿAbs and the branches of ʿĀmir

    with a true, abundant flood of water and blood.

  16. They struck them as a stick is struck, then drove them

    into a year whose rats had not yet grown mature,

  17. with a towering host like a mountain, free of rabble;

    its front ranks met the fight while its length had no end.

  18. They drew them away from every high ground and lowland

    and every broad hollow filled with raiders.

  19. So every impetuous, battle seasoned man brought good in his wake,

    and every cherished, hard, sturdy mount as well.

  20. By your life, we and these confederates

    are in an age whose claws have not been trimmed.

  21. If you call only for what brings benefit,

    leave me be, honor whoever appears before you, and blame whom you will.

  22. I have the means to repay all good and evil:

    hardship for hardship, and favor for favors.

  23. As you see, I stand ready,

    a companion at the shared watering place, never late.

  24. Your abuse—except that what has already passed

    lies upon me like the garments of a forbidden thing, ill fitting.

  25. Someone marvels at the patience he sees in us;

    if war kicked him, he would not utter a word.

  26. For we have found that honor, at its moment of need,

    needs guarding more than a patterned Yemeni cloth.

  27. I see that other peoples’ wars grow slight, while ours

    grow great, and we mount every formidable challenge.

  28. You see the open land sick under our weight,

    struggling with our immense host.

  29. And if one of our prized warriors wears down the edge of his fang,

    another prized warrior’s fang rages among us.

  30. We have a weapon with which we drive foes from our lands,

    and all Tamīm hurl their missiles with such a weapon.

  31. Usayyid has sons who have come one after another,

    stars in Tamīm’s sky, each a landmark.

  32. I left what was base; I neither took part nor tasted it,

    and God kept my wealth and food pure.

  33. My people and my enemies think that I

    will speak whenever they do the like again.

  34. Maʿadd saw me bearing a distinguishing mark and warned one another

    against confronting me as I walked beneath a marked banner.

  35. Their good sense restrains the prudent from facing me,

    while I raise my voice to the maimed ostriches.

  36. And if some people brandish and sharpen weapons against me,

    I clothe them in dark, patterned cloth.

  37. It seems that shame from us hangs around their necks,

    its lasting marks descending upon every gathering.

  38. After that, every poet who waded in or plunged headlong

    tried to enter my sea while it was surging.

  39. They turned back; were I to strike at one of their mothers,

    he would cock his ear, yet neither listen nor speak.

  40. That was when intelligence had ripened and the gift had matured

    of Ḥisī’s son, of Shurayḥ, amid gathering clouds.

  41. My sons and my wealth are given up before my honor,

    and my words strike like a resolute Mashrafī sword.

  42. We enter the protected ground of a mighty man when we wish,

    and defend our own with straight spears.

  43. People see in us the skin of a shedding black serpent

    and the pelt of a fierce, powerful lion.

  44. Whenever you seek my standing and rank among Tamīm,

    you will find me neither a disgraceful maternal uncle nor paternal uncle.

  45. You will find me among their nobles and their best,

    guarding their vulnerabilities and committing no offense.

  46. You turned on your heels the day you came

    driving forward the vanguard of an immense army.

  47. Is he not a lavish giver, a provider, and a spender,

    one who maintains family ties and is gentle to the wronged,

  48. my own close kin, twin to the finest, softest earth?

Sol 6