أهاج البرق ليلة أذرعات — Jarir

Did the lightning, on the night at Adhri'at, stir

A longing you cannot pursue?

So I made the swift she-camels endure each day

Of Gemini, blazing fiercely,

Melting the folds of their hides; and were

The iron of al-Aqwalayn heated in it, it would melt.

And many a camel with a sweat-streaming nape—you see the mounts

At dusk of their fifth-day watering, trailing behind him.

We strode swiftly along his flanks,

With heads bowed, while he slipped swiftly away.

I sent envoys to you in succession;

So now there is no envoy and no reproach.

And its crushing blows have fallen upon Taym,

And I had warned them—if only they had feared punishment.

So I found no excuse for Taym,

Nor Ibn Barzah's forbearance worthy of reward.

Indeed, Ibn Barzah was, among Tamim,

Fit to have his nose cut off or be reviled.

Do you revile me, though Tamim has never known

Any ancestry for Taym beyond their sworn alliance?

Do you praise Malik and leave Taym aside,

Though they were the very target struck?

When the noble are counted, you find Taym

Their bran, and the rest the kernels.

Your father Taym is not of Khindif's line;

The blackness of your complexion has aroused suspicion—indeed it has.

You see baseness between Taym's mustaches

And the blackness of their eyes, set down in writing.

We have known Taym's shame from Saba',

And their stitching of leather bags in Sana'a.

So you are rooted in Yajudah, the abased,

And in the clan that overmastered Lihab.

Have you not seen that Zayd Manat is a camel-stallion,

Massive and powerful, through whom we tame the unruly?

Are you ungrateful to your protector, O son of Taym,

And those under whose leadership you graze cloud-fed pastures?

And Taym has no kinship with Nizar's two ancestral lines,

Nor has Taym lorded over al-Ribab.

And to Dabbah, Taym is nothing but a slave

Who obeyed the lead and followed at their side.

Nor does Huwayzah know what high honors are,

Nor Jalham, save their shaping of milking bowls.

And on the day of Banu Rabi'ah we caught up,

And on the day of Dhu Najab we drove Kilab back.

And on al-Hawfazan's day—where was Taym,

To be called upon that day, or answered?

And Bistam advanced against them, and met

Lions, angry beside their cubs.

So Taym was not among us on the morning of al-Hinw,

Nor among the cavalry the day it climbed Irab.

We advanced with the horsemen who bridled them,

From the two lowlands, scaling the mountain passes.

They entered Madhhij's strongholds, marked for battle,

And left no gate of Sana'a unentered.

Perhaps the horses will frighten Taym's grazing herds,

And give Aysar's butter no time to be melted.