Sol 6.1

  1. Pure-bred, a cherished lady of clans of noble lineage,

    Cavalry squadrons and foot soldiers shoot in her defense.

  2. One of those fair, slender-waisted women whose skin

    Seems washed in fragrant musk.

  3. Her cheek is gold, and her mouth is hail,

    With spaced teeth, bright canines, polished smooth.

  4. As though, when her bedfellow seeks a draught from it,

    After sleep, it were cooled with mellow wine by the north wind.

  5. And her fragrance is like the scent of an ungrazed meadow,

    Whose blossoms at Fayḥān form garlands.

  6. Then a bull of the sands tossed his two horns, as though they were

    Two wooden shafts of the leather-dressing tools of Yaʾṣūl and Yaʾṣūl.

  7. Clear-hided and white, save at his throat,

    As though it were daubed with the blood of the maknān plant.

  8. Far-ranging in his pastures, watchful; yielding to him were

    Makr and taʾwīl on every knoll.

  9. Now and again he crosses the dusty ground of Naqaḥ,

    Its inner reaches like Sind—parched and massive.

  10. A sturdy Mulaykiyya she-camel, like a bull camel, attended

    Through two lush years by rest from breeding and free grazing.

  11. As though a white bull rose from her girth-straps,

    Huddled, wrapped in the blackness of night.

  12. Until, when her foremost runners drew near him,

    And streamers of foam hung along both his flanks.

Sol 6.1