Sol 5.6

  1. You inherited Abū Sufyān, his two sons, and the man

    through whom War’s barren she-camels withdrew from those in calf.

  2. Your father is the Commander of the Faithful—the man through whom

    a millstone stood firm, beyond all power to dislodge.

  3. Whenever a people’s millstone slips, you strike it back

    onto the Faith, until the cloth beneath it lies true.

  4. with a sword by which Muhammad met, at Badr,

    the sons of al-Naḍr, in white helmets freshly burnished.

  5. I saw the sons of Marwān when their fortune rose in earnest;

    their crescent climbed above every light in the sky.

  6. I see the Right has led people from every quarter

    to you; from the horizons their saddles are set down.

  7. I saw the sons of Marwān—their claim was vindicated

    by ʿUthmān’s counsel, formidable in its power.

  8. You see every stallion lay his breast before me

    when Khindif charges, her champions at my back.

  9. Dung-pellets scatter from every beast that scents danger;

    they make a jinn-like clatter when her onslaught surges.

  10. Even if I were Luqmān son of ʿĀd and met him,

    the deceitful soul’s devices would surely confound him.

  11. Then he would see proud men, heads held high, as though they were

    the mountains of Qarūrā when their shadows wheel.

  12. And many a cavalry host we took to war while its slow-breeding mares were barren;

    it did not come home until its foals had become yearlings.

Sol 5.6