حي الغداة برامة الأطلالا — Jarir

Greet the ruins at Rama this morning,

a trace whose people departed, and it grew desolate.

The night rains and morning rains have left

a passage there for the wind, and room to roam.

I have found no dwelling like you since the days I knew you;

so may al-Simak's rains drench you in brimming bucketfuls.

After all your people left, you became a dung-marked ruin,

a wasteland, though you had been a settled, much-inhabited home.

And I have indeed marveled at dwellings and their people,

and at Time—how it replaces one lot with another!

And you have seen youth's riding-camel hold back

after rapid trotting, and grow weary of traveling.

Indeed, the women in their litters, on the day at Burqat 'Aqil,

roused an ailing man and worsened his derangement.

The heart stirred with longing at their memory, though already

the stars' wings had passed through the night, and the heart inclined.

They keep the outlet of 'Aqilayn to their right,

and set Ramatayn's stony ground to their left.

When they boast, they claim no kinship with Taghlib,

and were granted luxury's splendor and beauty.

Umm Hazra's apparition visited late at night,

and how dear a vision was that visiting phantom!

Oh, would that I knew, on the day at Darat Sulsul:

do you wish to cut me off, or merely to play coy?

If the white-legged ibex of 'Amayatayn and Yadhbul

heard your speech, it would bring the ibex down.

Greetings to you! Tomorrow you will not be their companion

on Wajra's rugged ridge, as they trot in haste.

They miscarried prematurely at six months,

and were fitted with fresh soles after their own wore out.

And when daylight's shadows grew short

and the mounts flagged from weariness and exhaustion,

the mounts hastened with every fair-skinned, gaunt rider,

wearing a threadbare shirt, whom you would think swaggering.

I was made—and I shall not spare Taghlib—

a punishment and a deterrent for wrongdoers.

May God disfigure Taghlib's faces; indeed, they

have become contemptible to me, muzzles and moustaches alike.

May God disfigure Taghlib's faces whenever

the pilgrims raise their arms and loudly proclaim God's greatness.

They worshiped the cross and disbelieved in Muhammad,

and in Gabriel, and denied Michael.

And when a Taghlibi clears his throat to offer hospitality,

he scratches his arse and quotes proverbs.

Have you forgotten your day in al-Jazira, after

its aftermath proved a calamity for you?

Qays's defenders drove their horses against you,

shaggy and grim-faced, bearing champions.

Ever since them, you have kept taking everything

for horses charging against you, and men.

Zufar the chief, Abu al-Hudhayl, destroyed you,

then captured the women and secured the wealth.

Al-Ukhaytil said, when he saw their banners:

'O Mar Sergius, we want no fighting!'

Why did you not ask the Tigris's flotsam about yourselves,

while the limping hyenas gathered the limbs?

Al-Ukhaytil abandoned his mother, as though she were

the track of a water-drawing camel turning pulley wheels.

And al-Ukhaytil hoped, through the folly of his judgment,

for what neither he nor a father of his could attain.

Clear the road: you have seen our camel-stallions

repel other stallions in fury and assault.

My Tamim has attained perfection, O al-Ukhaytil; gird yourself!

Al-Ukhaytil was disgraced when I spoke and he spoke.

If Khindif's pillars jostled

a solid mountain among the mountains, it would shift.

Indeed, the rhymes' cord has been twisted tight

for the sons of Fadawkas, when they cut off 'Iqal's nose.

Before reaching me, you met a company from Khuzayma,

and long camel throat-sacs swelling proudly over you.

Khuzayma went forth with steeds that seemed

like eagles of a dark rain-cloud, shaking off fine rain.

Indeed, thus we prepare them for the like of that,

given milk to drink and clad in horse-blankets.

You never found my horsemen in battle

unsteady when mounted, nor inept in the saddle.

They raided Taghlib's women at dawn and captured them,

and al-Hudhayl saw squadrons as they came to water.

Qays and Khindif, if you count their deeds,

are better and nobler in deeds than your father.

If they declare you forbidden, you will surely be forbidden to enemies,

or, if they declare you lawful, you will surely be eaten lawfully.

Do you possess even one sacred precinct among the holy sites,

or lodge in the shade of the arak trees?

Surely our dwelling is nobler among dwellings

than yours, and our mountains rise higher into the sky.

We led Khuzayma by force, as you know,

and al-Hudhayl spent the winter struggling with fetters.

And Husayna saw my horsemen at the sand's edge,

gathering plunder and dividing spoils.

And if Taghlib gathered its ancestral honors,

on the day of comparison, they would not weigh a mithqal.

Never seek maternal kin among Taghlib,

for the Zanj are nobler maternal uncles than they.

And you shot at our crag with a broken-nocked, headless arrow,

seeking an archery contest; now you have met one.

Were it not for tribute, al-Sawad and Taghlib would have been divided

among the Muslims, and you would have been spoils.