1. What stirred your longing among the old camp traces,

    whose familiar landmarks have vanished at Dhu al-Qaysum?

  2. They stirred love, though an age has passed since you knew them,

    and they have decayed, save the supports of the tents.

  3. Indeed, we saw you when you held all our love,

    when our ties with your people were beyond reproach.

  4. So may the morning clouds water you with gentle, lasting rain,

    or a downpour from rumbling clouds, loud with thunder.

  5. On the day at Qushawatayn, love almost made you

    reveal the outlines of your hidden secret.

  6. Your prince swore he would return no greeting;

    he has no mercy for one whom love has consumed.

  7. We used to bind ourselves to you with a cord of affection;

    how I marvel at our severed cord!

  8. Indeed, I saw—and nothing lasts—

    one day, women in litters, a solace and delight.

  9. When they moved camp, they settled in the broadest camping ground,

    and when they declared their lineage, they cried, 'O Tamim, to our aid!'

  10. When they promised you a gift, they broke their promise,

    and when asked for it, they put off every creditor.

  11. So defy the reproaches of the women who try to forbid you;

    for your sake, I have defied every close friend.

  12. For love of you, a sleepless vigil is kept by

    an eye that passes the night with scarcely a doze.

  13. A man among you who has forbidden visits,

    out of rancor—by his father's life!—is not forbearing.

  14. They shoot through gaps in the curtains with eyes

    that hold both sickness and the cure for every sick person.

  15. O Maslam, guests turn to you;

    I sought those who inspire hope and bestow honor.

  16. How many a vast desert I have crossed to reach you,

    barren, and deadly wastes of open plains and rugged ridges!

  17. Even with guides, they are not safe from its terrors,

    unless accompanied by a brave man of steadfast resolve.

  18. How can one converse with the sons of the desert,

    their heads wrapped, beside thirst-crazed camels awaiting their fifth-day drink?

  19. You saw that their faces had been worn thin

    by night travel and scorching winds that do not wear you thin.

  20. And whoever sees our riding camels arrive says,

    'Is that stained hue upon them from tar?'

  21. They complained of bleeding sores over their kidneys,

    or on their flanks, and of wounded withers,

  22. until with you they rested from long night travel,

    and from sore feet and strips of skin torn by fetters.

  23. The carefree man sleeps, but my cares do not sleep,

    as though my night were the night of a snake-bitten man.

  24. Cares are an inward illness afflicting you,

    until you dispel their uncertainty through a resolute man.

  25. Those courting destruction have not been fair,

    though I protected every preserve and inviolate domain of theirs.

  26. If they had their way, despite the favors I bestowed on them,

    I would be made to drink a tainted, poisoned cup.

  27. And I found Maslama, noble in his stock,

    like the crescent moon, radiant, not dark.

  28. You are the one hoped for, whose bounty is awaited,

    O son of the caliph and son of Umm Hakim.

  29. You are indeed the full moon and son of a spring raincloud;

    you have become the most generous of travelers and dwellers.

  30. The shoots of your family's thicket have wholesome soil,

    and your thicket's ancient stock was the finest ancient stock.

  31. When I alighted among you, you knew my need,

    so you mended my bones, and my skin was renewed.

  32. Indeed, they gave me fine horses and furnished

    servants, together with a hundred massive, high-humped camels.

  33. I saluted your face with a greeting of peace,

    and recognized a noble woman's union with a noble man.

  34. God favored your parents, and they begot noble offspring,

    and you counted the finest maternal and paternal uncles.

  35. You have pleased us, and were created a lofty light,

    auspicious amid crescent moons and stars.

  36. You are a son of the converging gravelly valleys; take pride

    in being of Abd Shams, at their summit and their purest core.

  37. Indeed, honor and eminence were built up for you by

    the house of al-Mughira, of Banu Makhzum.

  38. And take pride in the house of Murra, Su'da's clan,

    in their noble deeds and surpassing wisdom:

  39. the protectors when women cast aside their finery,

    and those who boldly shoulder a debtor's crushing burden.

  40. It was not deemed strange in any of them

    to free captives and shoulder every great burden.

  41. And the caliphs built for Maslama, in the heights,

    a glory established in a well-known station.

Sol 6.1