Ode LI: What — said I — moved

What — said I — moved his eye to its weeping — wearied therewith it spent the night in fitful, broken slumber ?

'Twas as though in his eye were a grain of pepper, from the morning without intermission until eventide.

Folly it is for him to dwell on the thought of Khuwailah, now that the villages of Najran stand in the way of a meeting with her,

And my people dwell in al-Kathib, while hers are in the circuit of Kalb (?), its land and its sky.

O Khaulah, how shalt thou learn how many a free-born dame, tender and delicate, noble in her tribe, attended by many women,

I have passed the night with, in possession of her, and drinking flowing wine before the morning dawned — wine precious and dear of price ?

And many the raiding party, gathered together as the south-wind weaves into one the scattered clouds, have I joined — a party whose vanguard passes on in high pomp and pride,

[Mounted] on a stout mare, strong in the backbone, that crushes the flies by closing her eyelids, with her joints all fashioned on the mightiest plan ;

She is like a strip of the silk stuff of al-Yaman called siyara : she has large reserves of speed [when others flag] : she takes the lead of the thoroughbred steeds on the morning after the encounter.

Why dost thou not ask about us the horsemen of Wa'il ? verily we are the speediest of them to reach our enemies ;

And we are the most numerous of them when the pebbles are counted, and to us belong their excellences and the glory of their banner.