Ode LXXXI: The heart that was smitten with

The heart that was smitten with longing is sobered of its youthful passion, and the time has come for the scattering of the whole tribe collected together ;

Then was he as though not the showers that fall from the clouds, nor the far-sought wine strained from the lees could cure the burning thirst of his heart.

Now who will carry to an-Nu'man this message, that his sister's son repairs constantly to as-Safa above the 'Ain, and sings ;

And that Lukaiz are not the owners of a skinful of clarified butter, what time their pilgrims rose high [to the Upland] and dispersed to their several lands ?

[God (?)] decreed for the whole of the men, when his commandment came to them, that they should lead their horses alongside [of their camels] and then should overtake their foes.

A generous, noble chief makes with them for the rugged Upland — one keen and swift to strike like the edge of an Indian blade.

And the whole concourse said — ' Whither tends our way ? ' and Mumazzaq hid within from them the evil guile of his mind.

And when the [fields of the] rimth and the ghada covered them from view, and when the fires of both the parties shone before them,

And he [the leader (?)] diverted them westwards away from our country— and those about us had been glad if he had gone eastwards