Ode XXXVIII: Hast thou recognized the traces of

Hast thou recognized the traces of the household of Hind in Jumran — now void, but they will not vanish?

Thou Wouldst deem the lines, known once so well, now that two years have passed, were patterns tattooed.

I stayed my camel there while I questioned them— but to what purpose asked I aught of the traces?

The marks of her dwelling stirred memories of her, and memory kindled to longing a sick heart,

And my tears flowed fast, though I strove to stay them, over my beard and my raiment in streams.

Then I turned away from the spot a light-coloured camel, fleet as a wild-ass, strong and sturdy, that is never tired of pushing on,

Close and firm of flesh, like a male in strength: when other camels whimper with distress, thou seest her silent.

'Twas as though I had fastened her belly-girths round a slender-waisted [wild-ass] with a white patch on his flank, stout in frame, repellent in aspect.

He keeps away from the water three mates, lean like lances, and prevents them from drinking in spite of raging thirst.

He pastured them on the dry uplands until the herbage of the hollows where water stood had quite dried up, and he dreaded the deadly hot wind.

And they stood day-long with parched throats, watching the sun with eyes contracted, in fear lest they should faint from thirst.

Then, when he was convinced that day had quite departed, and he perceived that it was now black unbroken night,

He threw them into the midst of the darkness, galloping alongside — a biter, a thruster, snapping at them with his teeth.

And he brought them down at the first flush of dawn to the springs that cast forth from them all rubbish [borne upon them by the wind],

Spouting upwards, deep blue like the sky in colour — they see therein the glittering points of the stars.

And by the water is Qais the father of 'Amir: he gives them time for a space to stand there ;

In his hand is a bow of wood grown in the Haram, made of a whole branch : [when pulled,] there follows the hiss [of the arrow] a resounding twang,

And a slender arrow, pared down fine, on whose stem thou mayst see a stain of blood which has sunk into it.

But he missed them, and all of them fled away, almost bursting their skins in affright.

And if thou askest of me, know that I am a man who holds the mean in contempt, and heaps gifts on the noble.

I build up high renown by mighty deeds, and I feed full the needy, and pour wine to my boon-fellow ;

And he who seeks for bounty praises my liberality to him, what time the seeker blames the mean for his niggardliness.

And I pay my debts faithfully and fully — my evil for evil, my good for good.

And my people — if thou doubtest what I say, then ask of my people one who knows them —

Whether they are not, when the jaws of Famine bite hard upon men, causing them to forget their dignity,

Folk who hold lightly their goods in the face of claims on them, when distress wears away the means of the owner of cattle.

Long are their spears on the morning of the dawn-attack : valorous are they, protectors of their women and babes,

Children of War on a day when they clothe themselves in mail — thou wouldst think them stallion-camels clad in iron.

My house be their sacrifice for what they did at Buzakhah when they filled with their hosts the upland plain !

And [what they did] when 'Amir at an-Nisar and at Tikhfah met at their hands with a disastrous day :

[At an-Nisar] they forced the whole tribe of Hawazin to yield them the half of their possessions, the rich and the poor of them alike.

And against us Madhhij at al-Kulab led their forces, all their confederates as well as their own pure stock :

There our war-mill whirled, grinding down their horsemen, and they became rotten bones, as though they had never been,

With spear-thrusts wherefrom the spouting blood gushed forth, and sword-strokes that clove the skull down to the shoulders ;

And their bodies in Taiman lay so thickly together, that he who saw them would liken them to fallen leaves of trees.

We left 'Umarah among the spears — 'Umarah of 'Abs, wounded and drained of blood ;

And but for our horsemen, Tamlm, on the Day of Dhat as-Sulaim, had not raised the war-cry of Tamim.

It is not to cast shame upon Tamlm that I count up the great deeds of my people, or to blame them at all,

But I am calling to mind only the benefits we conferred on them, both those of late date and those of long ago.

And many the place of indignity we have disdained to dwell in, and instead thereof have pitched in a glorious camping-place,

What time many a man dwelt with Contempt as a trusty yoke-fellow and a tender mother.

And many the dreaded breach where we stood as its defenders, when all except us shrank in fear from standing there;

We made our bulwarks there our swords and our spears and the mail-coats of iron rings strung together,

And short-haired steeds, preferred to our children in nurture —in the midst of our tents they champ their bits :

They are accustomed in war not to yield their place : when they are wounded, they make no complaint of their wounds.