Sol 6.1

  1. I recognized the dwelling after the tents had decayed.

    May you be watered by the heavy rain of a thundering, piled-up cloud.

  2. As though a man of the Jews were inscribing a script

    With a kaf and a lam among its dwelling-sites.

  3. And I parted from the beauties after intimacy,

    For the jealous man has ceased accusing me.

  4. We tugged at bonds while they were fresh;

    They wore away with age and turned to tatters.

  5. And I have been told they say, 'He is worn out,'

    So they do not peer through gaps in the curtain.

  6. And I have ceased pursuing beautiful women,

    And they have announced the severing of my bond.

  7. Whenever I speak to them, they mock me,

    Nor do they visit my camp in dreams.

  8. Indeed, al-Farazdaq lodged in the dwelling of Sa'd,

    For nights, neither chaste nor protective.

  9. If you set your sights on Sa'd—woe to your father!—

    You meet the charge of prized breeding camels at pasture.

  10. And they dragged away your father's daughters by force,

    And left your neighbor no protection.

  11. And if you were to ask Bahir about us,

    And the men of al-Majabba about 'Isam,

  12. And Dhu al-Jaddayn was slain by the spearheads

    And by every lean steed with its girth shifting.

  13. They returned with Hani' and struck Bishr,

    And the day of al-Samad was a day of mighty spoils.

  14. And a howler, delivered by fate, confronted me,

    So the stone-thrower's rock crushed his forehead.

  15. The poets howled when they saw a self-assured man,

    Firm in resolve whenever the reins stretched taut.

  16. So when he had slain the poets with anguish,

    He harried them and gripped them by the throat.

  17. I killed the Taghlibi, and a monkey tumbled,

    Plunging between towering peaks and sheltering heights.

  18. And I was ordained as death for Ibn al-Bariqi,

    And struck al-Ba'ith dead with an archer's arrow.

  19. And I sent the odes up Mount Salma,

    And my vengeance shattered the two companions of Shu'ba.

  20. Are we not the ones—Ma'add knows well—

    Who lead the clamorous, mighty host?

  21. We hold the frontiers of the sons of Tamim,

    And split the valiant king's helmet.

  22. And you felt safe whenever we stayed,

    But if we move away, you have nowhere to remain.

  23. And we are the defenders when you turn coward,

    Of captives driven at dawn and grazing herds.

  24. Your women pledge themselves as ransom for us whenever

    They hurry, having lifted their skirts above their anklets.

  25. You hang up milking-bowls, but have not prepared

    For the clatter of bridles on the day of terror.

  26. And on the day of al-Shiyyatayn, you were bustards,

    And at al-Waqit, more prone to flee than ostriches.

  27. And we fought Ibn Kabsha, as you well know,

    And Dhu al-Qarnayn and Ibn Abi Qatam.

  28. And on the day of Ghawl, the two sons of Hujayma were driven

    To our swords by the decree of death.

  29. And for al-Hirmas they left a trail of dragging,

    For birds to seek the defender's blood.

  30. So we slaughtered tyrants who were kings,

    And freed kings on terms of our choosing.

  31. You will be disgraced as long as you live, and none will greet

    Your grave with peace when you die.

  32. And even if we died, my grave would attack you

    With venom whose striking edges are keen blades.

  33. And the death-owl of the one laid there remains,

    Crying disgrace after the sleepers have sunk in slumber.

  34. May al-Zubayr's grave, but not theirs, be watered

    By bursting rain and torrents from the clouds.

  35. For the greatest treachery they fluffed out their beards,

    On the morning at al-'Irq, below Sanam.

  36. The rebels reproach you, and the house of Harb,

    And Muhammad's kin and the sons of Hisham.

  37. Had al-Zubayr lodged among us, they would have dispersed—

    My many horsemen—the swirling haze of dust.

  38. They would have feared that Quraysh would reproach them,

    And driven the horses back with bleeding wounds.

  39. And my maternal uncle, Ibn al-Ashadd, raised Sa'd high,

    Then passed beyond on the day of Thaytal, still rising.

  40. Then he brought them to the two garrisons of Tiyas,

    Fortunate in leadership and spoils.

  41. Qufayra, the vilest mother of a people,

    Completes seven slave-women in al-Farazdaq's ancestry.

  42. The shrew's likeness appeared in her sons,

    And an unflourishing strain from Qufayra.

  43. For Mujashi'—recognize them well—

    Are the sons of Jawkha, Khajkhaj, and al-Qidham.

  44. And their mother Khadaf overtook them

    With a blood-grudge in their hearts and bones.

  45. Whenever you come to al-Rusafa, you are disgraced there,

    As you are at the seasonal gatherings every year.

  46. She looks back, beneath you, O son of a smith,

    Toward the two bellows and the blunt axe.

  47. She would ransom the year when Jubayr was sold to her,

    And claims that it was the best year.

  48. And you gained nothing through your father's killing among them,

    Nor through your mother's ramshackle hut.

  49. Ibn Shi'ra has indeed saddled a vicious old she-camel,

    Biting at the saddle's thigh-rests and the rein.

Sol 6.1