Ode XXXVI: Many the wanderer, causing my dogs

Many the wanderer, causing my dogs to bark, who fears the lonely desert, while before him are the twin portals and curtains of the darkness of night,

To whom I have raised my beacon-fire, and when he had guided his steps thereby, I have chidden my dogs, that no biter among them should snarl at him.

Ask not me, but enquire [from others] regarding my disposition, what time those who seek to the pot are so many that they turn away him who desires to borrow it,

And they sit round about it watching it [till it be cooked] ; and the cherished maiden of the tribe is among those who kindled its cooking-fire :

Then shalt thou see that my pot does not cease to be, to the frozen wanderer wrapped in a furry skin, as it were a mother to whom he comes for comfort —

Open for all to see : never is a curtain set before it ; when other-fires are extinguished, its message of welcome shines bright.

When the milkless camels come home at night from the pasture, and redeem not their flesh by means of their milk, the barren one among them tastes the spear-point.

As for me, I drop every cause of quarrel the beginning of which makes its appearance on the part of my cousin, and I am careful not to stir it up,

For fear lest its rancour should bring evil things to pass : and verily great events are stirred up by very little things.

When evil speech is spoken, I make over the hearing of it to other ears than mine, and I ask not concerning it what the object of it is.

Suraim bring their sheep from Julajil to me ; and between us is Dhat Kahf and its rugged and lofty table-lands.

Why have ye wreaked your vengeance on sons and lords, whose breasts were free from all rancour against you ?

'Twas they raised you [by their glorious deeds] to heaven ; and nearly had ye attained thereto, if ever mortal man gained access to it.

Kings were they, though their salutation was that of subjects ; as for their oaths and their vows, they were always fulfilled.

And if the son of Zahr and his kindred be not of my stock, nevertheless Riyah are of my kin, their good and their ill ;

And Ka'b — verily I am the son of the tribe and their sworn friend, and their helper whensoever they are hard pressed in strife.

By thy life ! on the Day of 'Unaizah I should have lighted on my heart's desire, if only its purpose had held firm in my soul :

But it is the destruction of a man's affairs if he do not twist them firm : and there is no good in one who twists a rope who does not twist it hard.