Sol 5.6

  1. If you fear the two branches of Khindif, then depart—

    to the noblemen among the descendants of ʿAmr ibn Marthad,

  2. and to the clan of Ibn Dhī al-Jaddayn, Qays ibn Khālid—

    to every chief who shoulders and settles the blood-price;

  3. and to the clan of Uthāl—or Qatādah, his uncle—

    and Hawdhah, atop the lofty edifice.

  4. And if you come to ʿIjl, whose ancient stock spreads wide,

    and Yashkur upon the rugged, ever-rising peaks;

  5. and among Taym—Taym al-Lāt—I found a house

    reaching to the tiered height of the noble, towering house.

  6. Come, then, to the arbiters of Bakr ibn Wāʾil,

    and do not be like the bewildered man who wavers.

  7. If you wish, we shall appoint Uthāl and his clan as judges;

    and if you wish, Rabīʿ ibn Aswad.

  8. Men with an ancestral precedent by which guidance is found,

    with a lofty wellspring of aid surpassing every other;

  9. with a lion whose head no men have crushed—

    a sharp-fanged sire who has never been fettered.

  10. By their forbearance the fool is restrained, and he desists;

    they are mankind’s wise arbiters for whoever seeks their judgment.

  11. They show you guidance before your very eyes, if you can see it;

    yet no Kulaybite is ever guided toward any good.

  12. Then Bakr ibn Wāʾil’s arbiters said to us,

    before an assembly from every people, with all as witnesses:

  13. “Kulayb are mankind’s baseborn; they do not deny it;

    garments of humiliation cling to them in every assembly.”

  14. What could set the Arabs beside the clan of Ḥājib,

    and the clan of ʿIqāl the bountiful, son of Muḥammad?

Sol 5.6