Ode L: Yea, gone are my neighbours, and

Yea, gone are my neighbours, and no diviner am I, that I should tell whether the chances of travel will bring them near again or carry them far away.

And in the kin are maidens who have taken captive my heart, as a mere trifle in the provision with which they have furnished themselves for the way ; and Love has inflamed my being.

Slender of waist are they : their tresses have never been defiled with dust by reason of any distress, nor have they ever dwelt in the fever-haunted villages of the low-lands :

Virgins, brought up in luxury, the choicest of their kin, well covered with flesh, lovely of face, soft of neck,

Each of them hangs from her ears golden ear-rings with jewels therein, trembling to and fro : no words can do justice to their beauty.

When the tribe in a body started on their way, I kept apart from them as far as a boon companion keeps from his comrade and helper.

Then they drew to themselves the gaze of a distracted one to whose frenzy they gave no heed, as they turned the necks of their camels aside towards the halting-places.

They dispense friendly speech, talking in low tones, so that no passer-by may intrude therein.

And when the company had set up their tents, the ladies brought up their beasts and descended [from their litters] into the arms of hand-maidens :

They came down from [litters like] dam-palms, the backs of which fluttered in the breeze, adorned in their sides with embroidery.

By thy God Wudd ! What men were my people — though I have left them now — what time folk were vexed by the wind that blows [chill] from Udha'if !

Then was help granted by one to another by means of the gaming arrows marked with a notch by the teeth, and the main body of the tribe was the point to which the scattered companies gathered together.

Men are they not to keep waiting those that resort to them for the boon of meat, and not to reject the arrow of him who comes too late [when the game is made up].

Their bowls [to hold the meat and the broth] are great at eventide and in the forenoon : they slaughter many camels [and give their flesh to the hungry] : they are not men who pamper themselves.

When they play Maisir, their play does not lead to foul speech in their company, such as is talked about in the meeting-places of men during the summer.

Shall there bring me to the abode of my people a stout she-camel, having the habit of bending her fore-feet slightly to the right when going at a rapid pace, strongly built, compact, not worn-out with age,

In her eighth year, but looks to be older, as though she were beginning to be nine, powerful as a male — in her pace she seems to be casting herself headlong ?