Ode XIX: Whose remnants of dwellings are these

Whose remnants of dwellings are these in Taula' and there in Yabus? Yea, and the white plain of Raitah has now no inhabitant ;

The play thereon of the grinding winds has made them dim and " doubtful, even like the [faded] tracery which is being renewed on a woman's arm and brought back again ;

The drawing thereover of the skirts of the burying winds in their obliterated courts is like the sweeping-by of the skirt of a bride.

Turn then from them — since she is far away — on a fleet she-camel lean and spare like the wood of a bow, no biter.

Yea, and oft-times have I gone forth in the morning to the chase, mounted on a long-bodied steed spare like a palm-trunk growing in the midst of a garden,

With knees and hocks close together, narrow in the upper part of the chest, broad in the lower part, strongly-knit in the close-set vertebrae of the back ;

The points of hair upon him are covered as it were with silver, and the first drops of sweat upon him are never dry ;

He seems to thee like a wild-ass afraid [of the hunters], standing up to scan the distance on a high watching-place, [with the beads of sweat upon him] like streaks shaped as an acacia-pod, or like strings of pearls,

[Pods growing] on trees that break forth with new green in the month of Safar, with shoots bursting with leaves, not yellow [as in autumn],

And I reined him in, and it seemed as though the middle of his breast and the flat of his forehead, [from the blood thereon of the slain quarry,] were the pounding-stone of a bride [covered with perfume of saffron].

And oft-times have I companied with a hot-tempered companion, with the fellowship of a man experienced and patient in bearing annoyances, skilful in dealing with them ;

And oft-times I return the thrust of him that plagues me with a shoulder hard in its sudden attack, difficult to withstand, full of mischief ;

And oft-times I am soft and gentle to him who seeks of me a favour, and oft-times I requite with the like those who strive after my hurt ;

And oft-times I physic the disease of those smitten with mange, applying thereto a lotion that overcomes the most dainty of those I treat.