Ode XXV: Whose were the dwellings, all but

Whose were the dwellings, all but faded out, at al-Hubs, the traces of which are like the written sheets of the Persians ?

Nought is to be seen there save the herds of wild kine, black-cheeked, [their white backs] shining in the sun,

Or the foot-prints of the noble steeds in the sides of the higher ground, and the marks of their trampling there.

I stayed my comrades there, as I revolved all my memories of things past — and I was ever a man to dream !

Until, when the gazelles wrapped themselves in the skirts of the shade, and sought the noon-tide shelters they had made [by the roots of trees] ,

And I lost all hope of that which I had longed for with pain from her — and nothing brings trouble of mind to an end like hopelessness—

I betook myself to a she-camel, lean and muscular, as strong as a male, who shatters the stones with the blows of her short rounded feet,

With the leather shoon cut through by long wear — the rags of them fly about like morsels of fur in the rugged level plains.

Wilt thou not then direct her course to a King of good judgement in the shepherding of his people, glorious of soul —

To the Son of Mariyah, the generous — nay, is there any peer to the Father of Hassan among mankind ?

He bestows on thee ample coats of mail, swelling out over the girdles that hold them in at the waist, and black horses [tall] as palm-trees,

And ingots of yellow gold which he gives by twos, and slave-girls, some white, others with a violet tinge in the inner lip.

He gives no thought to his wealth as he deals it around : to him a lucky star and an unlucky are all one ;

And for him goes up the prayer there, never against him, what time the noses of men are abased as they stumble in the dust.