Sol 6.1

  1. So go, you two: no two old men are more foolish than you.

    For you have mended no rent, O sons of Umamah.

  2. You drive Abbad forward as a guarantor, as though

    you were driving a bald monkey to stand surety.

  3. To Ibn Masud, however distant his home, will come

    a tribute—when the riders sing it, they utter foul abuse:

  4. stinging blows from the words of a man who knows you,

    who gave you free rein for a new summer and a spring,

  5. out of patience, forbearance, and waiting for kin,

    so as to ward my people's folly well away from me.

  6. But when they insisted on nothing but clamor, I assailed them

    with a bruising stroke that leaves the face blackened.

  7. For your fool of a father, Khalid, before you,

    we drove him utterly away from the root of glory,

  8. by a noble deed that outstripped your father; nor could

    Ibn Fiqrah find himself a way up through its passes.

  9. Does Ibn Masud strive—and that is folly—

    to attain what he had squandered yesterday,

  10. to attain the noble men's achievement, though he could never

    attain it until he spoke to Tubba‘?

  11. You have lied, sons of Salma; hopes can prove false,

    and the rock of war is battered until it splits.

  12. For ours is the glory of life, while you

    drive an old riding camel, scarred by saddle sores.

  13. My people will know that I am in a wilderness,

    a desert that drove out the half-bred, who then found pasture.

  14. Whenever Nahshal seeks it, their share is

    toil and hardship; then they withdraw, limping.

  15. My father is Ghalib, and God named him Ghalib—the victor,

    and he was fit to bring harm and benefit.

  16. And Sa‘sa‘ah the good, who preceded him,

    raised high a basin, brimful amid glory's rain.

Sol 6.1