Ode XVI: Strange, that Khaulah knows me not

Strange, that Khaulah knows me not ! or does she see in me an old man worn out with years—

Time has clothed him with a white veil of hoariness, and his back is bent and bowed down ?

Yea, if thou seest hoary hair, yet am I a man still full of vigour for great and noble deeds, no bungler ;

Nor am I, O daughter of the tribe, one to grieve to-day for anything that has passed away and gone.

Already have I tasted, of the various kinds of fortune, every kind that is fair and pleasant :

Often have I dallied, glad of heart, with a gazelle with lustrous black eyes, inexperienced in love ;

And I have plunged into the midst of a meadow richly nourished by the rain, far from habitations, with its greenery watered by copious showers, full of flowers and lush growth,

Mounted on a steed that takes long strides in his gallop, with flowing mane, fleet, of the strain of al-Munkadir :

With the blaze in his forehead spreading downwards towards the nose, having stockings of white half-way up his leg, long in the front of the hoof, thick and strong in the pastern :

Full-grown as to his teeth on one side when his mouth is looked into, and on the other side with his fourth-year tooth not yet shed :

Of a bright yellowish bay when he bristles up his hair, and a dark bay when he does not bristle up.

We send out the fire-wood gatherers if we go forth in the morning with him to hunt the ostrich or the wild ass.

A horse that inclines much to one side -when thou checkest him : but when he is let go, he is swift as a bird in flight.

He rides down the pair of wild asses in their dust: he is quick and nimble when he makes his charge, unswerving :

Then, if he is pulled up at the furthest limits of their run, [through impatience] he paws the ground with his fore-feet like the action of one who digs for water.

He has full command of himself as soon as his first shortness of breath has passed : we stroke him down, but he will not be still, so eager is his heart.

Already we have made trial of him in all circumstances, both when he was full-fed and fat, and when he was lean and spare after training ;

When on a day we drive him to full speed when he is fat, his running is like the kindling of firewood blazing up ;

And when we have taken down his fat and sweated him under blankets, then is he full of running after running, an unwearied galloper :

He joins gallop to gallop, even as the long trailing rain-cloud sends battering down shower after shower.

His pace when he ambles is like the running of the fox : when he is put to a gallop, he is like a fleet antelope.

He rears up straight when thou startlest him : he is hardly to be bridled unless thou use force.

As often as we go forth in the morning to hunt, it seems as though I were mounted on a falcon swooping on its prey,

Or a light arrow sped from a bow of shiryanah-vfood, which the archer has feathered with thin slips of the inner wing-feathers.

Full of spirit is he — then, when thou hast quieted him down, tractable, gentle of temper, easy to control.

Among the sires and dams from whom he counts his race were the strain of al-A'waj, great gallopers and jumpers.

And oft-times there goes along briskly with me a she-camel of al-'Id, easy of pace, bold of heart, ready to face anything :

The trainer trained her, and then she was put aside [to get fat and become strong through not being ridden, to be put to use] to relieve care when-soever it might come upon me :

A nine-year old, or it may be one year older : a barren she-camel — never has a single drop of milk been drawn from her.

She puts between herself and the ground and the sharp flinty stones a pad hard, compact, its ring of hair not worn away.

She is like a galloping wild ass in the Sandgrouse-Meadows, when he finds the water-holes and the open pools therein dried up —

The mate of a company of slender-waisted she-asses with lean flanks — he fastens his teeth in their haunches and bites them hard.

He tramples the dung [on the rich pasture] until he is stirred by a day of burning heat from the hand of the Twins,

Blazing with heat — the upland plains are set on fire, and the cicada basks therein and fills the air with its din.

The he-ass spends the day standing straight up on the top of a high hill, debating in his mind this course and that, as one who deliberates —

Shall he take his mates to Sumnan and water them there, or shall he firmly resolve to visit the wells of Lughat ?

[Thus reflecting,] he louses the she-asses with dishevelled manes, with their eyes fixed intently on the wildings whom they watch [as they graze quietly on the plain].

Yea, oft have I entered the portals [of palaces] without having to give bribes, and a King who is not hard-fisted has bestowed gifts on me.

How many a man dost thou see who hates and envies me — anger burning in his breast has already given him a colic !

And I stuffed back the anger within his ribs, so that he walks with a limping step like a ram that has a sinew twisted in his leg.

He did me no hurt : but as for him, I had forced him to swallow gobbets of wrath seasoned with bitter aloes.

Yea, as for him, that which is in his soul will not be healed, even as a vein gushing with blood cannot be stanched.

Many the man, mighty in his kingdom, who has threatened me, and warnings from him have reached me before I came to him —

Choking with rage, his eyes kindle as he looks upon me, even as the eyes of a leopard kindle when he is angry ;

And he sees that before he can reach me — which he cannot do — he has to face the thorns of the tragacanth, sharp and strong.

Of Khindif am I, of the purest of them in race, where the stock is best and most numerous ;

I am of the trunk of the tree of their foremost, and mine is the headship of them, and the greatness ;

Mine is the fire-stick which yields fire without fail, if the fire-stick of the mean fails or comes short.

I am the one famed among their warriors for generous deeds, if the talk falls upon deeds ;

I acknowledge every rightful claim, and dispute it not ; and my dogs are friendly and never bite :

No, never seest thou dog of mine unfriendly : if there comes one wandering guideless in the night, he does not snarl ;

Many men arrive, but he treats none as a stranger, whether it be a slave seeking some boon, or a free man.

Dost thou recognize the abode, or is it strange to thee — the spot between Tibrak and the two rugged tracts of ' Abaqurr ?

The torrent has spread thereover the first of its floods, and the [winds] of late night and dawn have effaced it :

They have smoothed it down one after the other until it has been levelled, through the months of summer, with earth swept [into hollows by the wind] and broken down from above [by the torrent] ;

Just canst thou see faint traces almost swept away, like the letter lam in the writing of books.

Once did we see there white women fair as statues : no scathe had they suffered from Time that brings all things to decay.

They indulge themselves with sleep far into the day : surpassing are they in gentleness and kindness, with all modesty.

They walk with short steps, their feet planted close together : they are plump and well-liking, like clouds high in the sky.

They go from one to another's tent tripping daintily like the sandgrouse : they taste the sweet of life with no mixture of bitter.

They obey not the censorious when he bids them sever themselves from me, so that in the violence of his reviling he nearly cuts his throat.

And the longing of my heart, that which fills it with wonder, is a shape the fairest of all those that bind on the veil.

There charms it in her the brilliant white complexion which delights the eye, and the long and abundant hair :

The tiring-pin is lost in its massive coils, and when she lets it down at full length it sweeps the ground :

It is curling, thick, set on a large head, falling on this side and that in tresses like the plaited strings of girths.

Her white forehead is broad, and she is of those who surpass all other women in the whiteness of their brow.

Her eyes are like those of an antelope that has stayed behind the herd with its fawn in the early autumn, that stretches its neck to crop the branches of the lote-tree and the acacia.

And when she laughs, the parting of her lips discloses [a row of teeth] like camomile flowers, its whiteness set off by stibium, and marked with the lines of youth.

If thou tastedst her mouth, thou wouldst liken it to honey mingled with chilly snow.

Fair and smooth her cheek, long her neck : the nipples of her breasts stand out, not yet bruised ;

Blunt like the nose of an oryx, they thrust forward her shift, in the midst of a bosom plump, not wanting in flesh.

Slender of waist is she, spare in the flank, but full below where the girdle goes round ;

Her hinder parts fill the shift she has donned for indoor service, like swelling hillocks of sand ranged one by another ;

And when she walks forth to visit her women-friends, she is scarcely able to reach them without becoming out of breath.

As she goes, the flesh on her inner thighs on one side knocks against that on the other : she sways in her gait like the swaying of [a palm-tree] that is being rooted-up :

She has to keep her legs apart when she comes towards thee : she is large in body, heavy in the hips, and sways hither and thither as she moves.

Seventy miihqals [of silver] are molten for her anklets, but when she puts them on by force, they are burst [by the plumpness of her leg].

A good and loving mother reared her tenderly, and a father full of kindness that could deny her nothing.

She has all things soft and pleasant in her life : life is cool to her, fenced round from harm.

[Her feet] touch not the ground but there is spread for her to walk on a carpet to shield her from the dust ;

She treads upon silk, and treats it as of no value : long are her skirts of it, and she trails them behind her.

And thou mayst see the costly linen sheets held of no account by her, [but cut to make] shifts which she puts on after other shifts [discarded].

Then she sinks down upon her soft pile carpets, as a sand-hill sinks down when a pit has been dug beneath it.

The perfume of ambergris and musk cleaves 'to her, and her skin is yellow [with saffron] like the raceme of the sugar-palm.

If the perfume of musk were squeezed out of her sleeves, she would be nearly all squeezed away.

The sleep which comes to her in the late afternoon as the sun inclines to setting is a drowsiness which seizes her like an intoxication ;

And the glowing heat of the forenoon overpowers her, so that she remains immovable like the young of an oryx benumbed on a cold day.

Most lovely of shape is she when thou barest her body all but the two strings of pearls upon her breast and her bracelets :

Yea, thou wouldst think that the sun hidden in her shift had suddenly shone forth from clouds that cleared away ;

Ay, the image of the sun itself is in her shape, as it glows at setting or at rising.

She has left me neither alive, nor yet dead as a man who has come to his end and is at rest in the grave.

Men ask — ' Is his sickness a burning fever, or has a hidden phthisis laid hold of him?'

She is my malady, even she, and my healing rests with her : she wills it not, and so is its coming hindered and barred.

And if my brothers were to slay her in requital for my death, my avenger would gain his vengeance and attain his end.

Never in all time will I forget her, so long as a -turtle-dove calls upon her mate !