Ode XXX: Upbraid me not, ye twain

Upbraid me not, ye twain : enough is the shame for me to be as I am : no gain upbraiding to you or me !

Know ye not that in reproach is little that profits men ? —it was not my mind to blame my brother [when I was free].

O rider, if thou lightest on those men who drank with me in Najran aforetime, say — 'Ye never shall see him more!'

Abu Karib and those twain al-Aiham my boon-fellows, and Qais of al-Yaman that dwells in the uplands of Hadramaut.

May God bring to shame my tribe for [fleeing at] al-Kulab —both those of unmixed stock, and the others who joined our league !

Had it been my will, there had borne me far from my foes' array a tall mare — behind her flag the black steeds and fall away :

But it was my will to stand, defending your fathers' house; and needs must he fall to the spears who stands as his fellows' shield.

I said, when they thought to bind my tongue with a leathern thong, ' Ye kinsmen of Taim, I pray you, leave me my tongue unbound :

' Ye kinsmen of Taim, ye hold me fast — be ye generous ! the brother ye lost owed not his death to our people's spears.

' And if ye must slay me, then in me shall ye slay a lord ; and if ye will let me go, my substance is yours to spoil.'

'Tis true, then, ye servants of God, and ne'er shall I hear again the cries as my herdsmen drive my camels to fields afar ?

The matron of 'Abd-Shams laughed to see me [abased in bonds,] as though she had seen before no captive of Yaman stock ;

[And day-long as I lay there, the women around me watched, and some sought of me, full fain, what wives at my home desire.]

Mulaikah my wife knows well that time was when I stood forth a lion in fight, when men beset me or I led on.

And time was I slew to feast my guests and the poor my herds, and time was I rode on quests where none other dared to go.

Yea, once would I kill to feed my comrades the beast I rode, and once would I tear my robe in twain for two singing-girls.

And when 'neath the stress of spears our horse plunged and broke and backed, 'twas I that with fingers deft disparted the line of steel.

And hosts like the locusts' swarm were stopt by my hand alone : toward me alone they turned the points of their glittering spears.

Now is it as though I ne'er had mounted a noble steed, or cried to my horsemen — 'Charge! give space for our men to breathe ' ;

Or bought the full skin of wine for much gold, or called at night to comrades at play ' Heap high the blaze of our beacon fire ! '