Sol 6.1

  1. Why is your sleep in bed so scant?

    If your heart could, it would fly.

  2. And when you stand at the dwellings at al-Liwa,

    their traces stir you to weeping.

  3. Greet the dwellings, though the dwellings have become

    after companionship, wastelands without a companion.

  4. And the lovely women returned every affection

    when your heart was on loan to them.

  5. After blandishment and meekness, they have come

    to avert their eyes before you can speak.

  6. Will you not answer their rancor with rancor,

    or do you not wish to desist from love?

  7. And indeed they once saw you when the spear-shaft was straight,

    and time brings changing fortunes to a young man—

  8. in the days when your kin, all together, spent spring

    at Dhu al-Bayd, then summered at Duwwar.

  9. Ju'ada visited the saddles at al-Rasafa by night,

    from Ramatayn—truly, that was a distant visit!

  10. And when you lodge at a place in any land,

    may it be spared ill fortune and given rains to drink.

  11. The day has grown long at Barbarus, though we once found

    our days at Qushawatayn short.

  12. You never lodged in a place, O Farazdaq,

    without leaving disgrace there for your people.

  13. And when you meet the sons of Khadaf, say to them:

    'The day of al-Zubayr clothed the faces in dust.'

  14. Such baseness on the battlefields, O smiths of Mujashi'!

    Their shame has spread among men, to uplands and lowlands.

  15. They deceived al-Zubayr with their rope of protection, and he found no

    lasting strength in your rope when it came to protection.

  16. Your enemy had never experienced in war

    a fang you could bite with, or any claws.

  17. So ask the great chiefs of Quraysh; indeed,

    you find guidance and a beacon in their judgment.

  18. And when the pilgrims hurry to the sacred sites,

    then ask Kinana, and ask the Ansar.

  19. And ask the people of Yemen when you meet them,

    and ask all of Quda'a, and Nizar:

  20. who held the firmest positions on the frontiers,

    and who is mightiest when he grants protection?

  21. We are the defenders on the morning in the hollow of Tuwayli',

    and those who struck the tyrant at Tikhfa.

  22. Do you recognize, at the pass of Aqrun,

    'Abs, on the morning you left your backs unguarded?

  23. And Ghamama called at al-Waqit, then tugged

    the rope of humiliation with 'Athjal and Dirar.

  24. O, would that your women had called upon my horsemen,

    while their breasts jostled against the camel saddles!

  25. Indeed I boast of horsemen; so boast

    of those foulest in character and stock.

  26. And when noble deeds and lofty honors are competed for,

    the hands of Mujashi' return empty.

  27. Count Khadaf when the best sires are selected,

    and al-Jaythalut, and a weak-hearted coward.

  28. And when you boast of the mothers of Mujashi',

    then boast of Qabqab, and mention al-Nikhwar.

  29. Your sticks are milkweed; your wood has never been

    nab' wood, nor smooth-branched nudar.

  30. The pride of Mujashi' has been marred because you did not

    attain vengeance when matters came to the test.

  31. And indeed you lodged, and were the foulest lodger,

    and departed neither glad nor by your own choice.

  32. Indeed, al-Farazdaq, O Mujashi', found no

    condemnation of wrongdoing at al-Ajra'ayn.

  33. What troubles you, as you seek refuge with Taghlib

    from me, while your tears rush out in streams?

  34. Summer bustards, their crests fluffed up,

    have seen a dark, flesh-fed hawk that hunts early.

  35. Humiliation keeps, O Farazdaq, along with grit

    and shameful deeds, the blemish in your eye.

  36. The Ajarib and Minqar bereaved you of al-Zubayr;

    they did not ambush you; they challenged you openly.

  37. And you learned the station of the abased, finding nothing

    but anguished regret, followed by acknowledgment.

  38. They have dealt you swift disgrace, O Farazdaq,

    so, the night they raided you, you sought the unattainable.

  39. And Ji'thin says to al-Farazdaq, 'I see no

    house—any house—like your foul house.'

  40. And Tayba says on seeing you with your head covered:

    'You are foul in turban and waistcloth.'

  41. If only your kin had understood before that,

    and you had asked Nuwar about the foul man's folly!

  42. 'The Donkey's Trough' is al-Farazdaq's father; so recognize

    in him a nape, a neck, and a cheek.

  43. No one fouler than you folk has been found, O Farazdaq,

    by night, nor fouler in daylight, by day.

  44. Your hands fell short of the sky, and failed to find

    any firm hold for your palms on the foul tree.

  45. How can you boast, when you honored no covenant

    on al-Zubayr's day, nor defended what you must protect?

  46. Have you forgotten your father's woe in the days of al-Safa—

    the slain, whose killing afflicted him, and the captives?

  47. And the horses, when Ja'far charged against you—

    you were their Duwar, an idol to circle, at Rahrahan.

  48. At Burqat Rahrahan you said to Ma'bad,

    'Do not call on us; await the decree of fate.'

  49. It left the fetters hanging loose upon Ma'bad,

    and the marrow watery in the shafts of his leg bones.

  50. And people have learned of episodes of yours

    that shame faces and keep them from being bared.

  51. Delegations went to the kings and met with success;

    so give up going as envoys, and blow the bellows.

Sol 6.1