1. The tribe brought forward, as they stirred to journey upland,

    full-grown, tamed camels with worn tether-ropes,

  2. tawny, as though a stain of yellow wars-dye had mingled with them,

    from their varied tail-swishing and tail-flattening.

  3. A loud-voiced singer drives them, resigned to parting.

    I had a need—if only the camel-driver would pause!

  4. Do you not see how the eye, when it wept on parting day,

    roused against you those nursing rancor and grudges?

  5. You barred us from pure rainwater among close-set stones,

    which, had you wished, would have quenched the parched lover's burning thirst.

  6. How many people we fear stand before your door,

    O Umm Amr—and a gatekeeper, and another gatekeeper!

  7. Is there any granting of what you promised but withheld,

    and any ransomer for the captive you have held fast?

  8. If only you had called liars, when no shameful deed was done,

    those who persist in injustice and falsehood!

  9. For I have heard talk after our solemn pact,

    from what you mentioned to Zayd and Shaddad.

  10. Greet the dwellings at al-Burdayn, now worn away;

    of the tribe's homes, nothing remains but traces.

  11. You could scarcely recognize this campsite; it was changed

    by the passing years, just as they changed my skin.

  12. I have known, without being told by anyone,

    that love revisits me at Yabrin's sand ridge.

  13. God destroyed Abbad and his followers—

    such are your Lord's ways with the likes of Abbad.

  14. The Commander of the Faithful had already told them

    what God knows of truthfulness and earnest effort.

  15. Whomever God guides is guided; none can lead him astray.

    And whomever He leads astray, no guide will guide him.

  16. When their affairs had settled, they plainly understood—

    al-Juhafi's people—a matter whose aftermath was clear.

  17. They faced the forces the Commander of the Faithful dispatched against them,

    like the wind sent as a calamity upon Ad.

  18. Among them are angels of the Merciful, who have nothing

    for provisions but trust in God and glorification.

  19. Champions of truth upon piebald, marked steeds,

    reinforcements from your Lord: they were the finest reinforcements.

  20. Juhaf met, with a liar leading them,

    gleaming blades steeped in poison, not scabbards.

  21. Juhaf met humiliation while they lived,

    and not a soul from their bodies was accepted.

  22. The hyraxes from Saba that dwell in the cave

    will never conquer the den of the lurking, charging lion.

  23. When Satan led them astray, he said to them:

    “You failed to keep your promise to me when God's command came.”

  24. The judgment of a people whose madness you increased was nothing

    but the wit of dust-cloud moths flitting out in the morning.

  25. When you said, “Kalb's officials oppress us,”

    what injustice and corruption you courted!

  26. Taste, though you once kept apart from it,

    a war burning with fierce heat and kindling.

  27. May God grant no blessing to a people deceived

    by the Jews' words to a cloak-weaver with two loom-beams.

  28. Look: the Commander of the Faithful possesses

    the highest branches and the place where the valley converges.

  29. You find the mountains of the sons of Marwan enduring,

    lofty, firmly rooted, deflecting the hurler's rock.

  30. We have praised the One who heals His creation

    of every obstructive innovator in religion.

  31. So God humbled a people with no sound judgment,

    rumormongers filled with rancor, and envious men.

  32. The sons of al-Ashʿath al-Kindi, when they broke faith, faced,

    along with Ibn al-Muhallab, a war of raging turmoil.

  33. Indeed, when enemies set their sights upon your spear-shaft,

    they find in it a solid core that will not bend.

  34. You exalted the edifice of kings who built for you

    ancient, Ad-like structures in strongholds between mountains.

  35. When noble men count your deeds

    of old, you surpass them through fathers and grandfathers,

  36. through the greatest, whenever they wager a stake,

    and those who feed others when the wind blows bitter cold.

  37. The house of al-Mughira and al-Aʿyas, at their ease,

    spread seas over you, not scant pools.

  38. And al-Harith the Good struck fire that never went out—

    fires of glory from a firestick that never fails to spark.

  39. Not even the sea, turbulent, its billows rising,

    overtopping ships with surging waves and foam,

  40. is ever more lavish in bounty than your brimming buckets,

    for captives and for the suppliant seeking gifts.

  41. To Muawiya the victorious: indeed, he has

    a firm faith and a heart that never swerves.

  42. Of the house of Marwan, whose convictions never retreated

    from fear of any people, nor did they contemplate heresy.

  43. Until the kings of the Romans came to you humbled,

    bound together in neck-shackles and fetters.

  44. A day whose battle humbled the Romans' necks—

    glad tidings for those in lowlands and highlands.

  45. Oh, how often a band of riders sought you out in pursuit of their hopes,

    then found the rain praiseworthy and followed the scouts!

  46. They traveled roads whose clear tracks lead

    to vast seas with green depths and unfailing waters.

  47. They set out from al-Adama and al-Dam on shod mounts,

    long-necked, their necks moving with the swing of their upper forelegs.

  48. Travel on: the Commander of the Faithful is for you

    a rain bringing relief, with growth that is never scant.

  49. What do you think of dependents I have grown weary of?

    Their number can be tallied only by a reckoner.

  50. They were eighty, or eight more;

    but for my hope in you, I would have slaughtered my children.

Sol 6.1