1. Carry my message—and a message may reach one far away—

    to Ibn Sharik, the ankleted, collared one,

  2. that Janab's heart was not changed

    by Ma'add's gathering at the camp of dispersal.

  3. He only fell further apart through his meeting

    with Quraysh; he felt no shame, though a man of honor takes care

  4. for himself until he parts from his neighbor

    honorable, without departing with his reputation in tatters.

  5. Did I not pledge death, which none can turn away

    when it comes, except the Lord of west and east,

  6. for their two blood-debts, when their two worn-out camels crossed the wastes,

    with a she-camel whose every elbow stood clear of her breast?

  7. And of another I said, 'Rely on her speed,'

    like a tall, white-girdled wild ass that climbs the flat-topped hills.

  8. When he drove them across stony ground, they kindled for him

    with their hooves, fires from splintered flint.

  9. It was as though his Ukaz-leather hide, when he shed

    his birth-fleece, were a year-old tunic torn to shreds.

  10. And I cast their two wraps off their backs,

    replacing them with cloaks of pieced-together Yemeni striped cloth.

  11. And you two were not worthy of it; it was only that I

    remembered my father for the sake of the clinging companion.

  12. And how much [I warded off] from Janab! Had he lingered, he would not have returned

    to his family with anything but an elbow's jutting bone.

  13. Among these was, by the House, where they stole it,

    Abu Zabban's property—in what a place of theft!

  14. at a lodging between al-Safa—you two were there—

    and Zamzam and the running-course, beside the shaving-place.

Sol 6.1