Sol 6.1

  1. And around me, from the two Māliks, have spread

    the waves of a cresting, foaming sea,

  2. toward roaring beasts with untamable heads—

    lions for the proud-necked lion.

  3. Does he seek the glory of the sons of Dārim—

    ʿAṭiyya, like a black dung beetle?

  4. And the glory of the sons of Dārim towers above him,

    at the height of the two Simāk stars and al-Farqad.

  5. I shall assail—even if it is ranked among the ignoble

    and returned to the lowliness of its stock—

  6. Kulayb, for it has never kindled its fire

    for a drawn gaming arrow, nor for a guest's bowl.

  7. Nor did they fend off, on the night of those crying

    to them for help, the neigh of a fiery, white-blazed horse.

  8. But they pound the donkeys,

    riding double over uplands and rugged heights,

  9. on every swaybacked she-ass, girt

    with a scrap of tether-rope and never felt-padded,

  10. marked with white patches from riding,

    sluggish in both forelegs even under the goading rider.

  11. A beetle sniffs a baseborn fellow's nape,

    ignoble in his exploits, a laggard.

  12. You see every narrow-hoofed she-ass

    being told, for mating, 'Stand still!'

  13. With them they favor their in-laws,

    and settle every blood-debt for one mortally struck.

  14. He sniffs pools of her urine,

    when she stands still, without his coaxing.

  15. For neither Ḥājib among the sons of Dārim,

    nor the family of al-Aqraʿ, the most glorious,

  16. nor the house of Qays, the sons of Khālid,

    nor the proud lords—the lords of the sons of Marthad—

Sol 6.1