1. Greet the dwellings and their people with peace,

    An age-worn campsite, or fallen tents.

  2. At al-Anbariyyah and al-Nahit are young women

    Who led desire with beguilement and rebukes.

  3. Did the doves' calling stir you? And often

    The lament of doves made you weep in the wake of your love.

  4. Then, from behind their veil, your heart was snared

    By one unseen for years, save in fleeting encounters.

  5. As for union, its time is long past;

    Only the phantom returns in every dream.

  6. Do not leave me surrendered to what afflicts me,

    Lest my hearing be stricken or my bones waste away.

  7. You two brought news, and longing stirred within us.

    Ah, how lovely the sandy knolls above Sanam!

  8. Then, when we have shed a tear among the dwellings,

    With more tears following, depart in peace, you two.

  9. Depart: healing has been denied, and we see

    That departure comes with my burning thirst and sickness.

  10. It was as though their evening journey between Yalamlam

    And al-Na'f, the sarh-tree slope, were the homeward run of ostriches.

  11. And I remembered you while the riding camels bowed low,

    Like eyelids, at the two stony tracts of Armam.

  12. Long has your love endured—if only desire would favor you—

    For Najd, though at Nakhlatayn you are a man of Tihamah.

  13. O Taym, had al-Farazdaq spoken truly, he would not have faulted

    In racing, the extent of my reach and my fierce speed.

  14. My goal has left the seasoned contender breathless,

    And harms the pretentious al-Zimmam.

  15. O Taym, no one is baser than you;

    The base have no honor in my eyes.

  16. And among the marvels is that Taym has tasked

    Burayzah's two dung beetles to confront every proud, lofty lord.

  17. Never in my lifetime, amid fortune's turns, would you meet Qahwas,

    Harnessed with saddle gear and a bridle.

  18. Hold your mount where you were outstripped,

    And be silent: another, not your father, did the defending.

  19. The noble possess noble deeds that have begun

    To flourish; your father's striving does not grow.

  20. And Barzah's little son is of base stock; inside his sandal

    Is a foot ignoble where the big toe sits.

  21. Did you praise the camel whose daughters are noble?

    Yet your father's daughters are not noble.

  22. And you have made them lean, Laja', while you bind their teats,

    Every other day, collaring their black ones with worn ropes.

  23. May you be disgraced, camels, and your owner disgraced,

    With big-humped weanlings, but few admirers.

  24. May God disgrace the graves at al-Murayrah,

    Their owls crying out in every darkness.

  25. May God disgrace the women at al-Murayrah,

    Dark of skin, passing the night without sleep.

  26. Long, by your father, have we driven back Amir,

    With cavalry and the chiefs of Hammam.

  27. While you, O dung beetle of al-Shaqiqah, were unaware

    Of the day we charged Bistam.

  28. They brought us up to Abu Qabisah, after

    The bit grew bloody and every girth heaved.

  29. Those who station their steeds at the frontiers,

    And win the honors of battle-days.

  30. How many a chief my horsemen brought back as spoil,

    Battle-seasoned—and how many a valiant king their mounts trampled!

  31. My father excels yours, and you have found no

    Uncle whose striving brought you to my uncles' rank.

  32. For I am a son of Zayd Manat, amid its branches;

    You will never crowd me out with your two squat fellows.

  33. Can you withhold tribute from the coasts,

    Or move the firmly rooted mountains?

  34. O Taym, the sons of Tamim have defended

    Me with their shoulders, and my standing grew strong.

  35. Those mountains—you were assailed from their flanks;

    So ask Burayzah which of them you would trade shots with.

  36. O Taym, the people of Sa'd have done you

    Favors; how have you repaid them with kindness?

  37. Sa'd son of Zayd Manat loosed their fetters,

    While Taym was held by Yahabir and Judham.

  38. Sa'd are those whose affairs bring good fortune,

    And they are light on the night of darkness.

  39. Sa'd, when the enemy invades their protected land,

    Repel him with the surging mass of a mighty host.

  40. Those who drove al-Ramadah's people away,

    After they had settled firmly in lasting homes.

  41. If Taym were grateful for kindnesses, no blame would be cast

    By Taym on the horsemen of Qa'nab and Khizam.

  42. Proud-nosed, kindlers of war upon lean steeds,

    Whose bits run bloody from bridling.

  43. Fine are the horsemen who bear Ja'far's battle sign,

    And noble are the horsemen of al-Hamham.

Sol 6.1