Ode XXXV: The cisterns have been broken down

The cisterns have been broken down, and there is not left to one of them of its coping-stones so much as the stone on which the bucket from the well is poured forth.

Khaulah's were they when her people halted there, and my folk and hers dwelt there together, facing each the other.

Now is it hard to trace the outlines of a dwelling-place, and that which the blaze has spared of the sticks of firewood.

I swear by Him to whose sacred precincts Quraish go on pilgrimage, and that which Mount Hira gathers together [of offerings],

And by the holy month of the Sons of Umayyah, and the victims when they are bound [for sacrifice] with the blood soaking into the ground where they stand —

I will never blame thee so long as tears roll down from mine eyes : if I do, then may God wipe me out of being !

I acknowledge your authority as long as life lasts, and I accept it, even though it should bring the loss of all my goods ;

Do not therefore show crookedness in your judgement of set design, even as the wood of the sara-tree is naturally crooked ;

And I will not attempt, in dealing with you, to conceal the truth, so as to make the judgement vain, even as a contest of cleverness is a vain thing.

But as for thee, Son of Kalb, thy sitting in judgement upon me would be the same as the wrapping of me in my shroud for burial !

Take ye Da'b [my son] as a hostage for the damage I have inflicted upon you — ye have no superiority over Da'b :

For among those not of royal race none has superiority over us ; and ye can find an equivalent for your slain man among [us,] your friends and kinsmen.

Hast thou any kinship with the race of Hujr son of 'Amr, which thou knowest and I know not ?

Or with al-'Anqa, Tha'labah son of 'Amr— the blood of these is a cure for dog-madness ?

And I think not that ye be kings of the race of Nasr — kings have a very high price !

But I have gained glory from the side of father and mother both, and my high place reaches up to both of them.

Thine ancestors were Bujayyid and the man Ka'b ; and thou didst no wrong in taking what thou wouldst ;

But a people from the root of Qais — their payments [as bloodwit] are camels and herdsmen therewith ;

And [War] is pierced, when I gain mastery over her, even as a piece of broiling meat is pierced by the skewer or spit,

By a spear with a sharpened head of which I thrust into her a long iron point, the knots in which are athirst for blood.