1. Stop, you two, at Su‘da’s ruins, that we may greet them—

    effaced ruins that, when asked to speak, gave no answer.

  2. My companions stood there beside me; only

    after conjecture did I recognize the dwelling’s traces.

  3. They say, “Do not perish of grief,” while already there appeared

    to them the tears of one maddened and enslaved by love.

  4. So I said to them, “Do not reproach me, for these are

    dwellings once belonging to Nawar, at a known site.”

  5. News reached me, after what had gone before

    of Shayban’s ancient, foremost glory:

  6. the morning they entertained Kisra and the might of his troops

    on Dhu Qar’s broad plain, with a feast served without delay.

  7. They opened a guarded preserve that had long been forbidden,

    so it became no longer forbidden to Shayban,

  8. among Nizar’s two sons and the Yemenites after them—

    scattered like Saba’s people; understanding is for the discerning.

  9. Thus Shayban alone was singled out for it among its people,

    whether noses were content or rubbed in the dust.

  10. Then it fell to Dhuhl alone among Shayban, for they

    possess honor in lineage and noble generosity.

  11. Then it passed to Hammam, and they won its choicest share;

    and whoever pays the price of noble deeds is honored.

  12. So convey to Abu ‘Abd al-Malīk a message:

    an oath of fidelity, untainted by sin.

  13. Every year a poem from me will come to you,

    finely adorned, which we shall deliver to you in full each season.

  14. These, then, are three that have reached you; after them

    will come poems that, if I do not perish, will not cease,

  15. in return for what you bestowed on me when you favored me

    at Jabiya of the Golan, with its mountain pass.

  16. Though I have reproached Bakr, I am

    bound to Bakr by goodwill and noble generosity.

Sol 6.1