Sol 6

  1. The doves sang joyfully at Dhu al-Arak and stirred my longing.

    May you remain amid springs and flourishing groves.

  2. I recognized a dwelling at Birah, though

    a full year of abandonment had passed in the blink of an eye.

  3. A Yemeni wind spread over you and brought glad tidings after decay

    of a rainy day.

  4. If your companions say it is time to depart, tell them:

    Greet al-Ghuzayz and those who dwell there.

  5. We love the departing company, even if we stay behind them;

    the one who stays is bound in longing to the one who goes.

  6. Our mounts will carry us swiftly tomorrow morning,

    but today is for satisfying desire and visiting one another.

  7. Love appeared, and I concealed a longing from my companions

    that strained the endurance of one patient in grief.

  8. In anguish I wept for youth, and I was moved

    by recognizing a dwelling at the two bends of Sajir.

  9. As for my heart, it will remain enthralled

    by love for Jumana or Barayya al-Aqir.

  10. She came by night through the open desert to one driven far afield,

    who made the foreleg of a lean she-camel his pillow.

  11. O Umm Talha, we have met none like you

    among those in the highlands or in the deep lowlands.

  12. Had the monks of Midian seen you, they would have descended,

    as would the white-marked mountain goats from the peaks of the lofty hills.

  13. Whose laden litters are these, setting out from al-Iyad,

    like palm trees or the canopies of passing ships?

  14. A man with his leg bared urges them onward,

    like the spare gaming arrow set aside from the gambler’s arrows.

  15. They brought forward tall-shouldered, mature camels,

    each a great beast with a long, even neck.

  16. Broad in the shoulder joints when driven, wide-set,

    with smooth lips, past its prime or just beginning to age.

  17. From its joined neck muscles a stream wells up

    and covers the back of its head like dripping dark dye.

  18. And when the fastenings of the reins are attached,

    they rumble deep between their jaws and throats.

  19. The camels moved past the palms of Yathrib in the morning

    or by the weighty palms of flourishing Ibad.

  20. Would that al-Zubayr’s bond had joined him to us;

    one loyal to his neighbor is unlike a betrayer.

  21. At Dhu al-Siba, al-Zubayr found Mujashi

    given to coarse behavior and the leap of a boor.

  22. They spent the night after al-Zubayr had been killed as though they were

    weak cattle returning from the waters of Quraqir.

  23. Qufayra, mother of Sa’sa’a, gave birth to her son

    above al-Muzannam, between a butcher’s two waterskins.

  24. Qufayra went out to distant pasture and moved her hand

    back and forth between the front and rear parts.

  25. Al-Ukhaytil was caught in my snares after

    al-Farazdaq stumbled—no recovery for the one who stumbles.

  26. Al-Ukhaytil met what you met, and before him

    al-Ba’iz fell, his honor diminished.

  27. Whenever they hoped to undo my strength,

    my strength and tightly twisted cords held firm against them.

  28. They were tried by a horse that strains against the rein and changes pace,

    quick to draw close and race at the contest.

  29. I have taken my place among a lofty branch of Khindif,

    among people of sovereignty and commanding rule.

  30. Our favors to you were great,

    gifts from one powerful, honored, and able.

  31. What can you say, when you know that Khindif possesses

    bright stars and every overflowing sea?

  32. The poems have trampled Mujashi,

    and trampled Taghlib too, with none to restrain them.

  33. I was told that Taghlib worship their cross

    at the two Raqqas, south of al-Makhir.

  34. They seek help from Mar Sergius and his son

    after the cross, yet they have no helper.

  35. Al-Ukhaytil lies: our horses never halted

    at the encounter, nor are they seen idling at night.

  36. We fit their hooves with iron against soreness

    after their front and rear hooves have worn down.

  37. Ask all of Abu Rabi’a’s people about those horses,

    and ask the sons of Ghubar on the morning of al-Ha’ir.

  38. The steeds of Banu Tamim trampled Taghlib

    on the day of al-Hudhayl, at the morning of the two clans of Hajir.

  39. And when they returned after trampling our enemy,

    they were brought among saddle coverings and tethering ropes.

  40. Our cavalry drove you down from the two heights of Khazar,

    while war brought assaults and clamor.

  41. Al-Ukhaytil, the cross, and Taghlib lost,

    and what they gathered is measured by a deficient measure.

  42. You bought, woe to your father, the vilest draught

    at the cost of Taghlib’s ruin—a wretched trader’s profit.

  43. Pay the tribute and leave off boasting of Taghlib;

    take your place, abased and low.

  44. I was told that Taghlib, after I had disgraced them,

    make excuses, though they have no one to excuse them.

  45. And the Taghlib woman, when her absent one stayed away,

    her lips drooped toward the worst of disgraceful acts.

  46. Al-Ukhaytil cannot stand against mature beasts

    whose fangs are like sharp points of glass, fierce ones.

  47. Among us are the caliphate, prophecy, and guidance,

    and people of counsel who confer every day.

  48. Al-Ukhaytil hoped to muddy our sea,

    but struck the deep center of a vast, surging one.

  49. Between the brows and beards of Taghlib lies

    baseness inherited from elder to elder.

  50. O son of the vile woman, where are those you mustered

    against Banu Fazara or the two clans of Amir?

  51. And when you met the chiefs of Khindif’s two branches,

    they towered after rivalry and mutual boasting.

  52. You left the straight road; among them have always been

    kings of thrones and pulpits.

Sol 6