Sol 6

  1. Were it not for modesty, tears would return to me.

    And I would visit your grave, for a loved one is visited.

  2. I looked, though what pleasure can a glance give

    into the burial niche where the digger's tool had reached?

  3. May your Lord reward you for the regard you showed your family,

    and may a rumbling, abundant cloud water your remains.

  4. You distraught my heart when old age came upon me,

    while your children who wear amulets were still small.

  5. I watch the stars as they sink toward the west,

    their clusters like herds of wild cattle.

  6. What a fine companion you were, a cherished treasure

    hidden by stones on the slope of Bulayya.

  7. She lived honored in her dwellings and departed

    untouched by arrogance or poverty.

  8. May a grave's remains at Burqat Dahik be watered

    by a roaring, resonant cloud and abundant steady rain.

  9. A roaring, resonant cloud, when it lingers over a land,

    makes rivers seem to run through its open spaces.

  10. Its masses roll and resound; its flashes shine

    like dappled mares with foals beneath their bellies.

  11. She was honored among her kin, and no neighbor

    feared harm from Umm Hazra.

  12. I remember you clothed in the fairest appearance,

    with beauty, serenity, and dignity together.

  13. Your scent was sweet when one approached you,

    and your honor was neither stained nor weak.

  14. When I traveled at night, I saw your fire illuminate

    a radiant face made lovelier by dawn.

  15. May the chosen angels pronounce blessings

    upon you, along with the righteous and the good.

  16. And may your Lord's blessings rest upon you whenever

    the pilgrims encamp, chanting, and descend into the valleys.

  17. What a sight of you that day when tears were stirred

    by Umm Hazra's dwelling at al-Numayra.

  18. The winds revive its campsite and renew it

    after decay, while rains wear it away.

  19. Her dwelling at Julajil seems like

    scripture from the Psalms that scribes renew.

  20. Do not go on at length when you begin to blame me;

    do not let excess exhaust your patience.

  21. Those companions were once our companions, but now they have become

    changed people, while other dwellers occupy the homes.

  22. The companions are soon parted by

    night and day as they turn over them.

  23. Have you reviled Umm Hazra, Farazdaq?

    May the sovereign, the all-subduing God, be angry with you.

  24. When her husband left her bed,

    her talk stayed guarded and her secrets remained chaste.

  25. She is unlike your mother, whose earring a smith bites

    while no veil covers her hair.

  26. We shall stir up your smith, and no smith

    at al-Miqarr's roadside can match the disturbance.

  27. The anvil was found stored in his grave,

    and the tongs were gathered with the saw.

  28. His echo weeps when a cauldron is dented,

    or when a cooking pot is broken into pieces.

  29. Al-Miqarr trembled, and in its eastern part cried out

    a smith covered in smoke and sparks.

  30. The sons of Fuqaym killed your father by force

    when he was dragged away without a waistcloth.

  31. They hamstrung his mounts; for his killing there was

    no requital, and for their hamstringing no compensation.

  32. Hadra rejected the smiths and their smell,

    for a free person resists humiliation by rejecting it.

  33. When she saw the rust of iron on his skin,

    his complexion was dusky and his fingers short.

  34. Farazdaq said, 'Patch our bellows.'

    She said, 'How can bellows be patched?'

  35. 'Patch your own goods: my grandfather is Khalid,

    while your grandfather is a smith; Nizar did not give birth to you.'

  36. I heard that she had joined herself to Dhuhl; surely they

    wronged the smiths by marrying into them, and acted unjustly.

  37. She called upon the Creator in a cry that could be heard,

    with pleading and fearful caution in her prayer.

  38. She sought refuge in your Lord from having as her mate

    a dark smith whose fart was a whirlwind.

  39. She warned of Laziq and his son as kin by marriage:

    a noble person is disgraced by in-laws.

  40. What shame it would be if you were afflicted with their smith,

    with estrangement and harm added to the shame!

  41. Why did you not defend al-Zubayr on the day when

    war blazed and its fire kept breeding more fire?

  42. Al-Zubayr called, but the seated men did not stir;

    had you offered them bowls of stew, they would have risen.

  43. They deceived al-Zubayr with their pledge, as though they were

    plow oxen bellowing aloud.

  44. You granted protection to the two men called al-Simmit, then betrayed them;

    and Ibn al-Asamm was a neighbor under Bayba's protection.

  45. The clan of Ibn al-Ashadd disgraced you, until

    your people's hearts seemed to have no gall.

  46. Tukallat spent the night, as you know, though she was no

    burdened old she-camel, nor a young one.

  47. They insulted the donkey, so I shall satirize women

    whose houses have the furnace's heat at their center.

  48. Farazdaq will not cease his baseness

    until Sirar moves from the road.

  49. Why argue, when I have outrun Mujashi

    by a lead beyond the reach of sight?

  50. The nobles of Quraysh have judged, so acknowledge it,

    son of smiths, as have the Ansar against you.

  51. Is there, among hundreds upon hundreds whom I have passed,

    any finish line or swift horse at full rein?

  52. Farazdaq lied: the stock of Mujashi

    is brittle, and their backbone is weak.

  53. When your belly is full, son of Mujashi, you are

    in disgrace, a blustering scatterer.

  54. The two branches of Sa'd refused you the honor of their protection,

    or that any protector should keep faith with you.

  55. You have long pecked at our hard rocks,

    until you were deafened and your beak was blunted.

  56. Son of smiths, you have tested me often,

    and the bowstring has been drawn to its full strain.

  57. Know that in my renewed contest with Farazdaq

    Mujashi has neither victory nor cause for joy.

  58. My poems have cut the nose from Mujashi;

    their weave is joined and stretched with venom.

  59. They met stubborn verses you failed to undo,

    while you were undone and had no strength to endure.

  60. Your people once thought you a poet

    until you drowned and the current engulfed you.

  61. Farazdaq has drawn from it nothing to please Mujashi,

    neither a wager nor a contest.

  62. Your hands fell short of the sky, and

    the evil tree found no footing on earth.

  63. Nawar spoke of Farazdaq to his shame;

    Nawar spoke truly and did not lie about you.

  64. Farazdaq remains covered in disgrace,

    and people point to him for his foul conduct.

  65. Do not overlook that Mujashi,

    if puffed up in cowardice, would fly away.

  66. They are captured, and their captive is never freed;

    they are killed, while the bowstrings remain safe.

  67. They boast to you, though their bones are weak,

    and the marrow in their frail skulls is thin.

  68. They looked at you with heads turning

    like dizzy hyenas.

  69. Farazdaq was coupled with al-Ba'ith and his mother,

    and Farazdaq's father too; shame on that coupling.

  70. He began twitching his eyebrows as though he were

    a male hyena with a den between two thickets.

  71. My people have no trade in anvils;

    my people's trade is thrusting spears.

  72. My horsemen defend those whose horses

    the enemy knows will raid the frontier.

  73. Their bits run bloody, while Mujashi's horses

    have not even dampened their cheek straps with sweat.

  74. While your smith patched his bellows, we

    marched to overpower kings, and they marched too.

  75. Our chains gripped the two sons of Mundhir

    until the mighty ruler acknowledged our judgment.

  76. And the two sons of Hujayma we left by force,

    the two sons of Hujayma crying among the spears.

  77. We trampled the forehead of a ruler,

    whose brows were covered in blood and dust.

  78. We risk our lives to defend our lineage;

    noble are the defenders, and grave are the dangers.

  79. And when women went out without displaying themselves,

    we felt protective, and at their going out we felt protective.

  80. Mujashi disgraced the horsemen of Malik,

    so the stew swelled and the rear ranks were neglected.

  81. Aghmam, had my horsemen witnessed al-Waqit,

    neither Athjal nor Dirar would have been led away in bonds.

  82. Son of smiths, how can you seek our glory

    when the mark of the smiths is in your lineage?

Sol 6