Sol 6

  1. What stirred your longing at the worn ruins?

    Where lightning flashed and the east and north winds passed?

  2. The north wind played over their once-fresh surface, and they were struck

    By the rising of al-Simak, with pouring rain.

  3. Fierce winds dragged their trailing skirts across them,

    As women drag the excess lengths of their hems.

  4. So they became dark traces, long aged,

    And remained through successive ages and changes.

  5. I remembered a dwelling where our people had stayed,

    When we lived there together in gatherings.

  6. We would stop talking when we feared an ill-wisher,

    And, when wary, speak in hints and comparisons.

  7. Until our people scattered toward a distant destination,

    And announced that they were leaving.

  8. They departed, and with them went women graceful as dolls,

    Fair-faced, swaying as they walked among the thickets.

  9. Serving girls hurried around them, and the women took

    The camels’ reins into their hands.

  10. They moved away from al-Balqa; their caravan beasts complained

    Of the harsh driving, their tails raised high.

  11. They left all the bare hills to their right,

    And the hills of Burqat As‘as to their left.

  12. I watched, and my tears overflowed after

    The women’s litters had gone and vanished behind a mirage,

  13. Across the wide plains near Uthal, as though they were

    Heavy ships propelled while laden with cargo.

  14. Can you forget the affection of everyone sorrowing

    Whose place you knew, when you yourself cannot forget?

  15. Though no great distance of separation lay between us,

    There were only brief visits and little lasting union.

  16. Buthayna said, ‘You do not care that we have parted.’

    Buthayna was mistaken: I do care.

  17. And the wrongdoers, in fear and devotion,

    Drive on every noble, swift she-camel.

  18. Forcibly, until their eyes, from night travel

    And exhaustion, are like channels of trickling water.

  19. I conceal my love for her, while some people

    Among those in love are like someone calling out what should stay hidden.

  20. O Buthayna, do you know how much you have made me endure

    Of slaughtering a fleet she-camel and fighting allies?

  21. And crossing the trackless waste, whose jinn cry out

    After nightfall, on a sturdy, swiftly pacing camel?

  22. I warned your cousin about the conflict brewing

    Between us, a grievous war full of rancor:

  23. A war whose trials scorch the weak,

    Conceived amid bloodshed and long estrangement.

  24. Do you not see that, because of my love for her,

    I spend my evenings in gleaming armor, my garment drawn up?

  25. Rust from the iron lies on my shoulders, as though I were

    A dark camel smeared with tar by its keeper.

  26. If only the pleasure of our life together would return,

    In a time like that bygone, empty age.

  27. Then we would exchange days that have passed

    And seemed short for the long days that followed.

  28. Then the enemy’s reports would be disbelieved,

    And the sincere adviser’s words believed.

  29. Each friendly young woman’s teeth seemed

    Like hail scattered over a rain-soaked meadow.

  30. Rain poured like a morning shower over acacia, running downward

    Across its smooth surface from a heavy, rounded cloud.

  31. Whoever she gives to is consoled for what he has missed

    Of her, even if she grants him no gift.

  32. Her shoulders are broad, her waist slender,

    And the sash moves freely around it.

  33. Her hips are full and her calf is soft,

    Pale and so shapely it silences the sound of the anklet.

  34. Until, when darkness grew thick and she captivated me,

    Longing overcame my resolve, while they remained unapproachable.

Sol 6