Sol 6.1

  1. Ah, greet Layla, now that her avoidance has intensified,

    and her dogs, once friendly, have snarled at you.

  2. And how can Hind be reached, when separation estranges us,

    her remoteness far-reaching, the quest for her hard?

  3. If only, at dusk, the folk of the tribe's dwellings had not been

    far away, and their raven had not croaked of parting.

  4. I am driven from the drink's coolness, though we see

    watering places for the thirsty, their froth flowing.

  5. And we fear among our enemies a keenly listening ear

    that is dreaded, or an eye whose watchfulness is feared.

  6. As though the eyes of those beholding her had faced

    a sun whose clouds cleared on an overcast day.

  7. When she is recalled to the heart, at her mention it almost

    flies to her, and her torment assails it.

  8. Is there an intercessor, or a messenger with a plea

    to her, though she turn away and offer little in return,

  9. to tell her that the east wind one day at Man‘ij left

    no solace for a soul whose affliction cannot be healed,

  10. and that one day at Sulmanayn, from passion, I nearly

    spoke out, when her riding camels had been haltered for departure?

  11. I marveled at a grieving man who troubled himself with a request

    to her, yet no reply from her came back at all.

  12. Her people barred what had been ours, so now

    her distance and her nearness are alike to us.

  13. O Abu Malik, drunkenness made your head loll,

    while at al-Bishr lay slain men whose garments were not purified.

  14. Among them is one laid out in a cloak, who did not die

    a martyr, and a caller to a cause for which he receives no reward.

  15. For your drinking companions, whom you abandoned,

    Qays's cavalry and its thickets of spears converged upon them.

  16. When the Taghlibi's spirit comes out of his arse,

    the taking of souls whose final abode is foul draws near.

  17. You kept vomiting aged wine, while Taghlib was

    booty on the day of al-Bishr, its plunder gathered in.

  18. And in Hazza's tavern, wine distracted you,

    whose headiness leaves its flies sick by evening.

  19. And you abandoned the cross's share, though they had seen

    Qays's battalions, their eagle-standard wheeling.

  20. Indeed, Qays left dwellings belonging to Taghlib,

    their ruin long-lasting on the banks of the two Zabs.

  21. The swine of al-Jazira wished for war against us,

    though its dogs had gone to ground at a lion's roar.

  22. I marvel at the Taghlibi's boasting, while Taghlib

    pays the Nayruz tribute, its necks bowed.

  23. Does a slave boast whose mother is a Taghlibi woman,

    her fang grown green from eating piglets?

  24. Thick-skinned at the nostrils, foul-smelling,

    her face veil is tied over a pig's snout.

  25. I laid a choking cover over Taghlib's breaths,

    its forcible grip fierce upon the skin of their noses.

  26. And I kindled my fire with iron, so now

    its torment is apportioned among the wrongdoers.

  27. And I cured a haughty, wry-necked sufferer from head disease with a slap,

    its impact on the nose or at the eyebrows.

  28. O Abu Malik, there is no refuge for Taghlib

    when the billows of glory's seas surge.

  29. When my house stands between Qays and Khindif,

    you meet chieftains—camel stallions whose wild ones have not been tamed.

  30. Thus God bestowed on Qays and Khindif

    treasuries whose door has not been opened to Taghlib.

  31. And God's Messenger is truly of us, and ever

    ours have been Mina's two gravelly valley floors and its pavilions.

  32. And indeed, Najd and the lowlands of Tihama are ours;

    we drive mountains of might, their highlands towering.

Sol 6.1