Sol 6.1

  1. Have you two not marveled at the passing birds of ill omen,

    That passed, then were followed by the good fortunes of auspicious birds?

  2. They tell us that the clan will gather

    There, at the heart of a home, after stark separation.

  3. I said, my heart gladdened by the birds as they passed,

    May God grant it! God is lavish in deliverance.

  4. And sorrows and a tear were stirred in me

    By the dwelling-sites at Jadid and Masih,

  5. Belonging to my people, when their abodes lay together,

    And when I lived in a clan rich in white camels.

  6. Marr lay waste, abandoned by Sa'd's clans, and became

    Desert wastes, with neither fire nor the bark of a dog.

  7. And the sandy flats of Awsaf, and all of al-I'was,

    And Bishah, and al-Rawdat, as far as al-Maqazih.

  8. As though none of them had ever been between al-Thaniyyah

    And upland Taqtad, whether stranger or evening returner,

  9. And the basin of Mashuma'ih, and Dufadigh,

    And its cairn, with the broad expanses of al-Ribad.

  10. When the clan and the herd apportioned by lot were in our midst,

    And when we enjoyed a prosperous state of life,

  11. And a gathering in circles, where pleas were settled,

    Shone with stakes of great milch camels.

  12. And when our two thigh-brands and the two neck-brands were adornments

    On the herd of thick-necked, tall, long-bodied camels,

  13. Camel herds praised for their guest-fare and midday draught,

    And their morning draught, in days with no gift for a morning guest.

  14. We laid the mound-like, fat camels low among us,

    When the cries of hungry shiverers grew many among the people.

  15. I have never seen a people like my own, when they were

    In their homelands—more giving, offering costlier winnings,

  16. More ready to slaughter the high-humped camel as her offspring bellows,

    Or more open-handed, whether giving or lending.

  17. Or with more men standing up to speak

    Words that bring relief amid the clashing host.

  18. As though 'Awf son of Sa'd had never been, nor

    Banu al-Hashr, sons of tall, towering men,

  19. Nor a settled clan of Ghuwayth, as though they were

    Lions of al-Shara within its interlacing thicket.

  20. Nor had a clan of Hayyan, or Jabir, ever dwelt

    There—noble men like wounding swords,

  21. Generous feeders, strikers of heads, leaders,

    Lavish givers of the reins of swimming steeds.

  22. They have a settled host that acts not rashly, and a force answering distress,

    Like the torrent of morning rains, hurtling against high ridges.

  23. If my people have now been hemmed in

    By separation with long cords, toward some far-flung places,

  24. My people were never submissive or abased,

    Nor deserters in the face of wounding affairs.

  25. They know I never tore down what they built,

    Nor attacked their timbers with borers.

  26. I never went about seeking their stumbles,

    Nor pursued them at dawn, nor went after them at dusk.

  27. Indeed, I find fault with anyone who speaks of their faults,

    And lavishly praise them in a praiser's words.

  28. Convey an insistent message to Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr,

    A message from a man openly affectionate and sincere:

  29. That the Ancient House remains in its place,

    And the grave of God's Messenger has not moved,

  30. Both abiding until the trumpet is blown once

    And again, and every toiler is repaid for his toil.

  31. For, by my life, I will not trade those two tomorrow

    For Shi'b or Shayban, in a careless seller's bargain.

  32. Nor will I ever buy a tribe's protection

    At the cost of loyal neighbors from Quraysh of the broad valleys.

  33. Come to the two ancestral legacies, Qays and Khindif,

    And Najd's open ground, and sound hearts.

  34. Do not cast me among Quda'ah; it strove to outstrip,

    Quda'ah, and claimed the finish of the headlong race.

  35. They refused to belong to Ma'add, on an invented claim

    Only lately; we know such inventions.

  36. By my life, if Quda'ah has parted

    Without a clear, beaten path of argument,

  37. Our own surely suffice, without a fickle companion,

    Or any taster, easily bored and ever changing.

  38. For we and our ally Rabi'ah are a people

    Who live despite the hatred of every hidden foe.

  39. Half-brothers through one father are we, with hardiness among us,

    Driving foes back, battering the challenger's pillar.

Sol 6.1