Sol 5.6

  1. Has the old campsite of your Suʿdā, among the familiar haunts, stirred you—

    at Rawḍat Nuʿmiyy, then at Dhāt al-Asāwid?

  2. The winds have taken turns upon it, winnowing away its soil,

    as has every lingering, thundering cloud laden with torrents.

  3. There every long-tailed buck and snub-nosed doe turns

    toward every solitary, quivering dune of sand.

  4. I knew Suʿdā there, when Suʿdā was still guileless—

    loving and coquettish, swaying among secluded maidens.

  5. By my life, excellent were the clan whom a raiding troop attacked at dawn,

    when our tents stood that day at Dhāt al-Marāwid—

  6. a troop Nuʿmān led, with firm resolve

    and a stratagem that overwhelms the rebel even as he resists,

  7. and a nature neither flagging nor feeble in strength,

    and fortune rising when the seekers of fortune fail.

  8. They returned with young virgins and mature noblewomen,

    winsome women guarded by a man far from indifferent.

  9. At every stopping place they trace lines with sticks,

    and conceal the pomegranates of their firm, swelling breasts.

  10. They clap their hands behind tender young boys,

    fair-faced as gazelles with arching necks—

  11. guileless women who had never met such violence before,

    in Ibn al-Julāḥ’s power, hoping in no arriving rescuer.

  12. He defeated Banū Ghayẓ, and they became his subjects,

    and clothed more than one of them in bounty.

  13. So there is no avoiding a lean, crook-backed she-camel racing with her rider,

    toward Ibn al-Julāḥ, her journey through the night straight and sure,

  14. trotting swiftly toward al-Nuʿmān until she reaches him.

    Among all lords, may my new-won and inherited wealth be your ransom.

  15. Then I calmed my soul after terror had sent its heart flying,

    for you clothed me in favor while I was absent.

  16. I have ever been a man who praised no commoner,

    so no good that has come to you will find me envious.

  17. You outstripped the men laboring under the hard ascent to glory,

    as a swift steed catches the quarry before the other pursuers.

  18. You surpassed Maʿadd in bounty and in havoc dealt to foes;

    thus you are the foremost scout for the rain-cloud of praise.

Sol 5.6