1. Greet Umm al-Ala, my two companions,

    and beware the glance of her bright, dark-pupilled eye.

  2. In her eye are indeed a cure and an ailment

    for one who comes near; the ailment precedes the cure.

  3. Many an evening visitor came from her to us, despite

    Iza—may Iza's life never be sweet.

  4. She sickened my heart on Tuesday night,

    and appeared before me on Saturday to bring me misery.

  5. On Thursday morning she quite killed me,

    then went away in her green robe.

  6. The day she said: 'If I see you in sleep

    as a phantom, you afflict my eye with sickness,

  7. and my heart grows weightless with longing for your nearness,

    until I seem to be floating in the air.'

  8. Then she turned away because of Hamma's words about us.

    O my people! My blood is on Hamma!

  9. Do not blame me, you two, for she is among women

    lofty in stature, who glance with the glances of gazelles.

  10. Help a man whose affection the tribe has spurned,

    and who has fallen into anguish through love.

  11. Lay my need before her, and say:

    'Have you forgotten our whispering beneath the cloak,

  12. and my standing between the prayer-place and the pulpit,

    weeping for you with all my strength,

  13. and the maiden's words: “Return with forbearance;

    unjust reproach is not the way of the forbearing”?

  14. So fear God regarding a young man wasted by love,

    his foes' words, and long estrangement.

  15. You drove him away, and now, from longing,

    he lies stricken, as though out in the open.

  16. Remember the pledge you owe him, and be generous;

    let that pledge suffice to kindle your generosity.

  17. A young man may do wrong, yet not break his promise;

    so fulfill what you said at al-Rawha.

  18. A noble man's promise is a debt upon him;

    pay it, and thereby prevail over your creditors.'

  19. She shed a tear, then said:

    'What lay between us was like the sara-tree's shade.

  20. O Sulayma, rise and go to him;

    you are my confidante among my companions.

  21. Convey my greetings to him, and say:

    “Everything is destined to perish.”'

  22. So I distracted myself from her with musical instruments,

    and my heart consoled itself—yet there was no consolation.

  23. And many a far-flung desert where you meet wide-eyed wild cows,

    scattered in bands, walking with the gait of women—

  24. of the unseen spirits' land, engulfing the caravan

    in open waste linked to open waste—

  25. I have braved it, while the dark grasshopper

    had a call at dawn, or something like a call,

  26. when the fawn rested at noon and the mirage surged

    at its height, like the rippling of pools.

  27. On a mount with swimming forelegs and toiling hind legs,

    fleet and spirited, rushing in her headlong ardor,

  28. her aim is to visit Uqba in his realm,

    and drink from his sea by the bucketful.

  29. A man of Malik's clan, war parts before his face,

    as darkness parts before light.

  30. O you who ask me about resolve and valor,

    martial strength, generosity, and fidelity:

  31. those qualities are indeed found in Ibn Salm,

    and more of their kind in useful aid.

  32. The bounty of his hands is like the sky's yield,

    for those nearby and those whose homes lie far away.

  33. God has forbidden that you see the like of Ibn Salm—

    Uqba of goodness, feeder of the poor.

  34. Birds alight wherever grain is scattered,

    and the homes of the generous are frequented.

  35. He does not give to you out of hope or fear,

    but savors the taste of giving.

  36. No, nor so that people say his nature is generosity;

    rather, it is the disposition of his forefathers.

  37. The pleasure of generous Ibn Salm is only

    in giving and riding out to meet the foe.

  38. He does not fear battle or worship wealth,

    but holds it cheap for the sake of praise.

  39. Open-handed, he has one hand that rains bounty,

    and another that is poison to his foes.

  40. He has clothed me in silk-and-wool and given me fair-eyed servants,

    and left my little daughter decked in jewels.

  41. And bestowed on me one bright-faced, long of

    arm, smooth-cheeked, fresh in youth.

  42. Then God decreed that he should die, just as

    our sons and our forefathers died.

  43. He departed in his bier, and I went to Uqba,

    complaining; he said, without a whisper:

  44. 'If a servant is what I procured, then I have

    another like him ready among my pages.'

  45. So I received him as promised—high-nosed, like a young

    lion greeting you at dawn as it emerges from a thicket.

  46. So may God reward Ibn Salm, on your brother's behalf,

    when kindness has grown scarce, with the finest reward.

  47. His two hands have made me, till I seem

    a wealthy man among the choicest of the wealthy.

  48. I do not heed an ignoble man's snub, nor do

    my tears flow for one who betrays sincere friendship.

  49. He spared me a plight worse than miserliness,

    with a praiseworthy, white and beneficent hand.

  50. He buys praise with praise, and deems blame

    dreadful as a speckled serpent.

  51. A king who rises on pulpits through excellence,

    and gives blood to drink on the day of bloodshed.

  52. How many favors he has bestowed upon us and among us,

    and white benefactions upon his peers!

  53. A lion who crunches men—or, if you wish,

    a hoarse-thundering raincloud, pouring abundantly from the sky.

  54. Standing with the standard, he drives back with death

    men, in defense of the caliphs' sanctity.

  55. So peace be upon Uqba when at rest,

    and when he marches beneath the standard's shade.

Sol 6.1