أصبح حبل وصلكم رماما — Jarir

The cord of union with you has become tatters;

and no pledge is like yours, O Umama.

When she unveils, her revealed face is beautiful;

and her replacing the veil delights the eye.

She shows a thirsty man a healing watering-place;

so he circled, without reaching its water, and circled on.

Did you hold out hopes and beguile me, until

you left my heart's innermost depths love-bewildered?

May al-Udama be watered by pouring morning rainclouds,

and Sulmanayn by a massed, thundering cloud.

I heard a dove warbling in Najd;

how you stirred me this evening, O dove!

A ring-necked dove, singing above a branch;

whenever I thought it bent beneath her, it straightened.

May God water the balsam trees and every land

of the two lowlands that has brought forth balsam.

I love the dwellings among Ghawl's hills,

and do not forget Dariyya and al-Rijam.

As though you had never traveled south of Qaww,

nor known the tents at Nazira.

I recognized dwellings at Jamad Qaww,

and there let my tears flow in streams;

and blackened hearthstones, enduring among the dwellings,

on which burning fuel had left dark marks.

I stood by the dwellings, and they recalled to me

former days with Ju'ada or Qatam.

Is Ju'ada departing without bidding farewell?

I love those who depart and those who stay.

So I said to my companions, who were hurrying,

at Dhu Baqar: 'Come, turn aside to offer greeting.

Come to my side this morning and see me off,

for a bond of duty to me rests upon you.'

They said, 'You turn us aside to no purpose

if you meet them only rarely.'

From al-Udama they came to you, shod,

wearing through their leather straps and foot-bands.

Would that the pale camels, carrying a caravan, had crossed

Wi'al, or crossed Sawam with us.

As though our loud-chanting camel-drivers had startled

ostriches in Khabt or on its open upland.

A mother of wild beasts gambles with the guides;

when they cross her, she subjects them to darkness.

Shimmering, she resembles the flowing

ripples of water, and has cloaked herself in dust.

You see the desert caravan, when they ascend her,

hurrying, their journey a headlong rush.

When it climbs the mountain passes in her morning light,

you would take her mountain-spurs for standing stallions.

I spend the night watching every star,

wrestling with my grief and anxious brooding,

for the passing years that have worn my youth

and worn out my bones after their freshness.

I walked leaning on a staff, and they bent my back;

and I bade farewell to saddle footrests and reins.

And how, when I do not tighten a saddle's ropes,

can I pursue my goal of visiting you?

Of 'Idi stock, in the Mahri lineage,

they send foam flying over their nose-pegs.

You recognize their noble breeding despite their leanness,

and their bellies are already drawn tightly in.

As though cotton lay upon their nostrils,

flying, as they wrap it about their heads like turbans.

The Commander of the Faithful has judged with justice;

he permitted the lawful and shunned the forbidden.

May God perfect His blessing upon you,

and may God increase your dominion to its fullness;

and bless you in each journey you make,

and bless you in each place where you stay.

By the terror-fearing refuge-seeker's right

to sleep when evening finds him under your protection—

O Lord of creation, grant us gratitude

and well-being, and preserve Hisham for us.

We were sure of success when we reached

the imam of justice and the valiant king.

God's bounty has made you ruler over the Christians

and whoever prays toward his qibla and fasts.

You pardon those who heed you when they obey,

but the disobedient have met lasting punishment.

Your father—as Ma'add well knew—used to

relieve them of their mighty afflictions.

They have found you noblest among them in ancestry,

when their lineages are traced, and firmest in standing.

And when you cast the Mu'alla arrow, you win

the shoulders and hump of noble lineage.

To the rightly guided one we turn if we are afraid,

and by his radiant brow we seek rain from the clouds.

He did not make the stars, or Suhayl,

like the full moon's light cleaving the darkness.

And the strands of God's rope keep you safe,

so you need not fear a break in its loop.

Whoever you leave without a word is grieved,

and whoever you converse with is envied.

We were content with the caliph when we were

his followers and he was our imam.

The lands rejoiced for you in a rule

that established our prescribed duties and remained upright.

My plumage comes from you, and my love is for you,

though my visits to you are rare.

May you be spared death from the assaults of fate,

and may you receive greeting and peace.

Indeed, the people of Quraysh know,

and those of Qays, his noble origins.

The two Hariths and 'Abd Shams raised you

to the heights, so your glory will never be assailed.

The swords of the Khalids split helmets

and skulls, amid the tumult of battle against their foes.

And the sword of Banu al-Mughira did not fall short;

God's swords subdued mankind.

I saw the catapult, when it struck

the edifice of unbelief, shatter the marble.