Ode CX: She spent the night reviling me

She spent the night reviling me and pressing me to sell Thadiq, and her rebellion against me was violent.

[I said :] ' Verily thy talking in secret about Thadiq is all one to me as if it were shouted abroad ! '

She said — ' Bring help to us by selling him : I see that the price of horses has risen in the market.'

I answered — 'Knowst thou not that he is a noble horse in the attack, becoming strong for it upon but little fodder,

' A bay, built firmly and strongly as though he had drawn in his breath [and been shaped while in that condition], long in his limbs, with no superfluous flesh thereon ? '

Thou seest him bold against all other steeds, when their competitors are all broken to pieces [with exhaustion and. thirst] :

They come down with a rush like the swoop to water of the sandgrouse in 'Uman, with their spears all laid straight for the thrust.

He stretches far the rein, and never trips in his stride : compact is he in the line of the back, well covered with flesh thereon.

And I said— 'Knowst thou not that he is beautiful in all his proportions, reaching the utmost of comeliness therein ?

' He abounds in copious power to gallop when stirred by the rider's leg after an exhausting run, and it (i. e., the leg) gains the utmost of its desires from the stimulus.'