Ode XI: Hast thou started to leave Salma

Hast thou started to leave Salma without any boon from her, at earliest dawn before men arose, and hast thou stirred her fears by thy farewell

Without any quarrel or anger — and in sooth the bonds that bind thee to her are not decayed nor cut asunder ?

[They were knit] what time she took thee captive with her smooth soft cheek, when she stood up to bewitch the beholder without a veil,

And with rows of pearly teeth that glisten — when thou tastest thereof, 'tis as though it were wine of 'Anah mixed with pure water drawn from a reed-conduit,

Or the rain of a morning cloud which the east wind has caused to pour down, mixed with freshly-drawn wine in a silver flagon stopped with a seal of clay.

[Nay, the cause of my parting was that] I saw that wisdom counselled me to leave youthful folly, and I became sober and staid after love-longing and passion.

Seek then forgetfulness of thy need of her, now that she has turned away, by means of a she-camel great in frame, easy of pace with her fore-feet, long in her stride,

Like a swift she-ostrich with hocks set close together when thou viewest her from behind, like a bier [on which a dead man is carried] when thou viewest her from before, keen of heart to go.

The place where the saddle-frame rests is like a dome : between the places where the strings of the plaited girth sink into her flesh the skin is smooth.

When her pads[, as she gallops,] scatter on either side the stones, the farthest-flung of them resound as they fall on the surface of the hollow plain.

Her withers [between the hump and the neck] resemble a high slope in front of a precipice : she stretches taut the folded rein [with her neck] as a sail stretches the sheet.

And when thou goest about her to admire her, thou comest to a breast which throbs with the quickness of her pulse in the flesh beneath the shoulders, large in the space allowed for the ribs.

Her fore-legs move briskly as she speeds swiftly along, as though they were the hands of a player at ball in a court surrounded by a fence,

Or like the action of a woman weaving quickly, who presses on to finish the last threads of her web before the evening closes in, and is urgent in hastening her work.

So shall I surely bring as an offering, on the wings of the winds, an ode of mine that shall pass into every land, until it reaches al-Qa'qa' ;

It shall come down to the watering-places, ever as something fresh and new, and it shall be quoted as a proverb among men, and sung by the singers.

When the chiefs at the courts of kings throng together, thou excellest beyond their reach a full cubit's length ;

And when the wind drives before it from its icy clouds the flakes of snow, and compels even the aged she-camels to kneel down in a strait and rugged halting-place,

Thou causest thy tent to be pitched in the midst of the whole tribe — and some there be that withdraw apart, to dwell in places far away.

Yea, thou art more generous than a brimming canal, with waves surging one upon another and dashing against the banks :

It seems as though with its piebald steeds in its sides it were charging the water-wheels of the husbandmen.

Yea, and thou art more valiant against thy foes than a lion dwelling in a thicket, that comes forth to attack again and again :

He springs forth upon a party that has no lack of weapons, and because of him the whole company passes the night in tumultuous fear.

Thou art the faith-keeper beyond all blame: but some there be with whose duty to their plighted word the clutching eagle flies away.

And when his malignant enemies shoot at him, he shoots them in return with long shafts sharpened in the points, and short arrows with broad heads.

And therefore, because of all these excellencies which I have enumerated,] does Tamim affirm that he is the man of liberality, of generosity, and of open hand.