Sol 6.1

  1. Whose are these camp traces at al-Na‘f, their ground effaced,

    Their remnants altered, their freshness worn away?

  2. Sa‘dah’s, from the year of defeat, when we shared

    Mutual affection, and her aversion had not yet dismayed us.

  3. And when she, for her own part, was adept

    At dalliance, yet kept herself from youthful passion.

  4. She ensnares men’s minds with her coquetry,

    Yet her nature is wild: we cannot snare her.

  5. Like a towering autumn raincloud, just as it poured,

    Lightning glittered within it, and its neck grew white.

  6. Like a young wild cow watching two calves in a wilderness

    Of sand, or at Fayḥān, her frame not yet grown stiff.

  7. Indeed, ‘Amr of bounty—‘Amr, scion of the house of Mukaddam—

    And ‘Amr is the champion of all the clan of ‘Uthmān, and its lord.

  8. A young man between Masrūj and the house of Mukaddam,

    Rich in lofty undertakings, resolute in them.

  9. Forbearing when folly overwhelms a man of reason

    In his affairs; keen of mind, sound in judgment.

  10. And he has always followed the deeds of those before him

    Among his forefathers, reaping high honor and acquiring it.

  11. How many a dear friend have I favored, and a visitor by night,

    And served meat from a white she-camel whose marrow was rich.

  12. And a distressed man whose burden of worry I relieved,

    While its doorway had remained barred upon him.

Sol 6.1