Sol 5.6

  1. Had it not been for you, my mounts would have descended

    from the rugged uplands into desolate valleys,

  2. making straight for the Imam, striding fleetly,

    bearing us through their nights into day.

  3. Like ostriches they seem, their nose-rings howling,

    when their tightly braided girths set forth.

  4. Whoever sees us, with our saddles upon them,

    imagines a startled herd there among them.

  5. They speed beneath our saddles, and we have fitted

    each choice she-camel among them with a breast-girth.

  6. But for the marks their saddle-bows leave upon them

    and the touch of their ropes, you would think them wild cattle—

  7. pure gold of the Dāʿiriyya line; indeed, among them,

    when their pedigrees are traced, is pure gold.

  8. It is as though the fleetness of their legs, when

    they strike the flint aside, kindles sparks;

  9. as though their hoof-soles were ankleted

    upon the road’s crossing tracks whenever they blaze—

  10. like feathers falling from a morning-faring she-bird and he-bird,

    two wilderness doves that alighted, then flew.

  11. We followed the setting of the Two Eagles until

    we left the marrow of the fattest among them runny.

  12. Then I would surely have turned the mounts’ necks

    toward a king to whom kingship has passed:

  13. a radiant one from whom the horizons await

    rainclouds that never fail and never stint;

  14. an inheritance not seized by force, but

    through just consultation were they chosen.

  15. They inherited the Caliphate when broken was

    the staff of Islam, and fiercely seethed

  16. the hearts of hypocrites who rebelled and kindled

    fire at every mountain pass throughout the land.

Sol 5.6