Sol 6.1

  1. May you both fare well, daughters of Qays, in morning and darkness.

    And if you have both resolved to part, may you both be safe.

  2. And if he speaks kindly or acknowledges a favor,

    reward the morning visitor twice over: he was indeed honored.

  3. A greeting from the one you both came to petition,

    who saw his right over his slave, should he dictate terms.

  4. So he fulfilled one of his two needs, but found no

    rightful release from his other need.

  5. When they passed beyond al-Ādāmāʾ, there ceased

    the folly of a heart held hostage, enslaved by love.

  6. Then the sun's horn, at its rising, revealed

    to us a belt-like stretch among the ridges of al-Naḥīzah.

  7. I declare my property forbidden, O Juwayn son of Maʿbad,

    to you, by God Himself, if you are a Muslim.

  8. And I adjure you by the kinship for which you have not been

    a keeper of ties when need arose, nor one who stepped forward.

  9. And I forbid Bijād to seek to wrong me:

    Bijād son of Saʿd, I have not been an offender against you.

  10. If you two take my property without any offense

    committed by my hand, you will both seek mercy and repent.

  11. You have forgotten our worthy deeds on your behalf,

    and remember our generosity only dimly.

  12. If ignorant arrogance assails us, surely we

    will bring hardship and blessings among the peoples.

  13. Ibn al-Muʿadhdhal once experienced that from us,

    and ʿAmr son of Hind, the year he marched upland, showing his intent,

  14. leading against us the two sons of Nizār from al-Malā,

    and the people of Iraq, lofty and haughty.

  15. When we thought he was descending upon us,

    we struck and confronted him with a mighty host.

  16. And whenever the enemy visits our homes,

    we give him a draught laden with poison and colocynth.

  17. An army's commander once attacked us; then

    my champions' weapons left his flesh cut apart.

  18. How many an armored champion attacked us with his host,

    and became for us enduring renown and spoils!

  19. We gathered in the horses for sixty nights,

    as they vied on the march with nose-ringed riding camels,

  20. lean as eagles, their upper chests bleeding;

    with them we repel the mighty army from us.

  21. And every Rudaynī spear—you would think its point

    a meteor appearing clearly in the darkness of night.

  22. We freed Imruʾ al-Qays's maternal uncle,

    and since freeing him have asked him for no dirham in return.

  23. We warded off from Unayf and his band,

    with our spears, a momentous day in the course of time.

  24. We freed the sons of Bakr, though there had been fastened upon them

    by Abū Karib a fetter—and Azhum, securely bound.

  25. The cushion of ʿAttāb son of Bakr—as though

    through him we had bestowed shares upon the Taghlibites.

  26. Our might reached Nuʿmān son of ʿAqfān,

    so he visited the graves: he was indeed an offender.

  27. And Ruwāt kept nine of the sons of al-Qayn alive,

    and he had sworn to that oath.

  28. We removed from ʿAdī son of Ḥātim,

    kinsman of Ṭayyiʾ's clans, a fetter deemed inviolable.

  29. And a fair woman whose conversation ensnares the wayward—

    you see coal-black, dusky hair and a full, tattooed forearm.

  30. She saw terror among her kin, and she was startled by

    a cry of certainty, not groundless conjecture.

  31. Like an oryx, with no necklace ringing,

    nor a frayed binding around her leg.

  32. She came, pleading no close kinship,

    and found no neighbor bound by honor to protect her.

  33. When the sun's brow had turned away, she remained

    at a crouching-place in full view on the open expanse of land.

  34. spending the night like a blind man, not knowing the worth of night travel,

    in truth, nor having heard its name before.

  35. Feeble worry kept her sleepless, as though

    she were lingering a whole year before dawn.

  36. When she wearied of sitting long, she pillowed her head on

    fingers like the fringes of fine silk, and a wrist.

  37. Umm Jaʿdah spent the night calling her husband

    to her, though she called neither an intimate nor an in-law.

  38. When the night lifted from her, and she saw

    a pure light rising against the night, white and distinct,

  39. she went out in her two tunics; her veil was too narrow,

    and she put it on her head only as a turban.

  40. She came to us, with one like herself from her kin,

    and we said, 'Come to us; there is generosity among us.'

  41. When we saw them, captives coming to visit us,

    barefoot, we furnished them with haltered mounts.

  42. For the captives who came to us from among their women, we gathered

    cloaks, Coptic cloth, and patterned wraps.

  43. They returned to them with a blessing from our bounty,

    and we permitted no wrong, nor approached them as wrongdoers.

  44. They refuse to return the favor; indeed, we

    gave the spears a morning draught of Abū Jābir's blood.

Sol 6.1