ألا حي ربع المنزل المتقادم — Jarir

Ah, salute the long-aged dwelling's site,

where none has dwelt since Umm Salim dwelt there.

A Tamimi woman settled on Qasa's two sandy flats,

a preserve whose horses defended Qasa, then al-Sara'im.

You refused and pay no debt, though often

you have begrudged the needs of a generous friend.

Within us is something like burning grief from what we fear, yet we see

a cure for thirsty, circling hearts.

O reproachful woman, rouse me for a final parting

tomorrow, or spare me the fault-finder's reproach.

Has it deluded you about me that passion alone led me

to you, though no pledge of you women endures?

Ah, remembrance and passion have often stirred

at Tal'a the sprinkling of streaming tears.

Qarqara and al-Washm have faded beyond recognition,

their tethering-stakes grown strange, the horses' legs slanting.

The valley of Tharmada' is deserted, though often

the clans' encampments lay close at Dhu Bahda.

Al-Farazdaq's mother surely bore a libertine

and brought forth a restless, short-legged runt.

No Muslim neighbor of al-Farazdaq

could feel safe from an ape whose night is sleepless.

He joins his two ropes when his night grows dark

to climb by ladders to his female neighbors.

You have violated God's bounds since you were a youth,

and have grown gray, yet your graying jaws do not restrain you.

In the brothel you pursue every disreputable woman,

and you are unworthy of chaste, noble women.

I saw you keeping no faith with a neighbor you had sheltered,

nor abstaining from dishonorable sustenance.

He is filth, people of Medina; beware

the intrusions of a filthy man versed in foul deeds.

Expelling al-Farazdaq from your midst was indeed

a cleansing of all between the prayer ground and Waqim.

You lowered yourself to fornicate from eighty body-lengths high,

yet fell short of the reach of loftiness and noble deeds.

Do you praise Sa'd, son of the smith, though

Ji'thin's birds among them have brought her ill omens?

Yet you, son of the smith, praise Sa'd, though you see

your hide weakened by them, far from sound.

And you, son of the smith, never blow

your bellows except seated, never standing.

The neighbors did not find Mujashi's rope

faithful, nor strong in resolve.

Quraysh blamed Mujashi' over al-Zubayr,

and did not excuse those deserving blame.

Quraysh said, 'Would that Mujashi's neighbor

had called Shabath, or been Ibn Khazim's neighbor.'

Had your neighbor taken hold of a Taymi's rope,

his mention at seasonal gatherings would not have been a disgrace.

Someone other than you fulfilled his pledge to the caliph,

and someone else cleared shame from the faces of the Ahatim.

For Waki', when Mujashi' faltered,

was enough to mend discord's widening breach.

You were only a follower in it, Farazdaq,

and tail feathers follow the leading wing feathers.

We defend you on every day of grave peril,

while you are a Qurahi on the shore of al-Kawazim.

O Bahila, I did not desire the killing of Ibn Muslim,

nor that you terrorize your people with injustice.

O Bahila, you have full recompense for your blood

if you kill the kin of Qays ibn Asim.

You urge Qays, son of the smith, to bring

upon your people a day like the day of the Araqim.

When Qays mounts raiding horses

against the smith, he gnashes his teeth, disgraced and regretful.

Before you, al-Ukhaytil shamed his people

and abandoned them to the press of close-fought battle.

Take your time rubbing the cross when there approaches

the tribute crescent, and hurry with the dirhams.

Qays has always had true horsemen,

defenders who shoulder heavy indemnities.

Qays is the advantage we hold in reserve

for excellence in striving and the building of honor.

When Qays and Khindif rally around me,

I draw on the bounty of the most numerous and noblest.

I am the son of glory's branches, Qays and Khindif;

they built me an 'Ad-like edifice with lofty pillars.

If you wish, from Qays come an impregnable stronghold's heights;

or, if you wish, a mountain with Khindifi passes.

Have you not seen me strike men down with Khindif's pillars

and Qays's pillars—a fine refuge for a stone-hurler!

Qays is the refuge we keep ready

to repel enemies or shoulder grave burdens.

Qays are glory's sons, and the 'Atikas are among them;

they bore oceans to vast, overflowing oceans.

Qays and the branches of Khindif have indeed rallied

around a feared man who guards his sacred kin's honor.

The long span has never slackened my strength,

nor has my bone softened for gnawing molars.

You see me, when men recount their ancient glories

and excellent exploits, bright-faced, never downcast.

Through my people's battle-days, unmatched by yours,

they smoothed for me the yielding ground of the mounds.

When Qays bridles steeds straight as spear-shafts,

they spit blood from long chewing on the bits.

They took al-Nu'man's women and Muharriq's two sons captive,

and led 'Imran by force with nose-rings.

They brought the two Jawns down in the heart of battle,

and knotted amulets did not protect the two Jawns.

As though you had not witnessed Laqit and Hajib,

and 'Amr ibn 'Amr, when they cried, 'To our aid, Darim!'

nor witnessed the two Jawns and the smooth-rock ravine,

and Qays's charges on the day of Dayr al-Jamajim.

Have you blamed Qays because Ghalib's sword failed

and a tale about him spread at the seasonal gatherings?

With Abu Raghwan's sword, the sword of Mujashi',

you struck, not with Ibn Zalim's sword.

You struck with it before the imam; trembling seized

your hands, and they said, 'New-made, not sharp.'

You struck with it an old she-camel's hock at Saw'ar,

but you do not strike helmets beneath battle's rumbling.

Rough at brandishing a sword is Mujashi's smith,

but deft with the sockets of heavy axes.

You will learn, son of the smith, that our spears

opened to us all between Falj and 'A'im.

Ah, many a people we have visited

with solid spears and stout, favored steeds.

Sulaym and 'Amir once won good fortune,

and 'Abs, by drawing sharp swords.

'Abs, on the day of al-Faruqayn, battered

with their swords the massive head of a hulking warrior.

And I, with Qays, O son of Mujashi's smith,

am noble, reserving my praise for the noble.

When battle-days are counted, you disgrace Darim,

and Darim's battle-days disgrace you, smith's son.

Did you not submit under duress to Dhu al-Ruqayba's judgment,

while Qays's desire lay in the Zahadim's share?

You fled, abandoning Dirar and 'Athjal,

and Mas'ud abandoned the enemies of the Hanatim.

On what disgraceful day were you not bound together

as captives, like headlong young camels yoked together?

On the day of al-Safa you were slaves to 'Amir,

and at al-Hazn you became slaves of the Lahazim.

On the night in the valley of Rahrahan you sped

in flight, never turning back, fluttering like ostriches.

You left Abu al-Qa'qa' cast away in fetters,

and what brother have you not surrendered to black shackles?

You left Mazad with 'Awf, who led him

by the worn rope of a forsaken, debt-burdened man.

Quraysh blamed Mujashi' over al-Zubayr,

and did not excuse those deserving blame.

Quraysh said, 'Would that Mujashi's neighbor

had called Shabath, or been Ibn Khazim's neighbor.'

When they camp in Najd, you hear reproach

in a gathering of the A'yas or the house of Hashim:

tales of riders on the highroad, whenever

their sunken-eyed camels groan, their footpads bleeding.

Minqar wronged you in arbitration,

as 'Awf was unjust over the man slain by keen swords.

'Awf disgraced you, as you had already been disgraced,

and 'Ammar avenged the blood-debts of the Barajim.

You have tasted from me the flavor of bitter war,

and you will not be safe if you rival Qays.

Qufayra came of a born slave of Salma ibn Jandal;

your father is her son, among the serving slave-women.

It will be told how Mujashi's swords wore down

people in need and hard-worked, swiftly striding mounts.