Sol 5.6

  1. Has word not reached the Caliph in Syria that we

    struck down for him whoever opposed him—

  2. mighty chiefs, whose heads we sent him as gifts,

    after the rancorous swords had met them at close quarters?

  3. And there, with Abū Bishr ibn Aḥwaz, are some of them,

    while vultures brood over the slain men’s corpses.

  4. If you forget what Quraysh has achieved, surely we

    fight for her honor and exchange volleys.

  5. The crushing ordeals of the age they ward off through us—

    days when even the sun’s radiance seems eclipsed.

  6. Nor did cavalry at Babylon break ranks as it sought

    the doom of death, while Miswar, the horseman, stood fast:

  7. gaunt steeds, the blood from whose throats had become

    sandals for their forefeet as they pressed shoulder to shoulder,

  8. in a battlefield whose engulfing horrors never cleared

    from the warriors save with the spears streaming blood—

  9. swift bearers among sleek steeds, grim-faced in the fray,

    and every fallen warrior pierced through by penetrating wounds.

  10. Grant me excuse for turmoil when you are not obeyed;

    you know my gentleness when you are won over to the right.

  11. You lavish a life whose like no one would lavish,

    to safeguard honor, though mortal perils for you are feared.

  12. For you are the renowned young champion, the horseman through whom,

    after ʿAbbād, all fears are dispelled.

  13. His baldric rides up beneath the long sword;

    amid battle’s terror he is neither frail nor cramped in build.

  14. Radiant and broad-shouldered, he was raised

    to glory’s noble heights by noble, lordly forebears.

Sol 5.6