Ode CXIII: Thou callest Zainab to mind, and

Thou callest Zainab to mind, and the thought of her stirs thy heart : but all the remnant of union with her was sundered long ago ;

And our people dwell in Falj and al-Abatir, while she has gone far away, to live in Ghamrah, and then in Muthaqqab.

And if thou seest that I have given over my ardour in pursuit, and have become white in the cheeks and hoary-headed,

And am meek to the bidding of censorious ones — and" time was when I appeared to them stubborn of soul, a stirrer-up of strife —

Yet in the past how many an active adversary have I been able to repel, and have bent his crookedness straight so that he shunned my company !

And many the kinsman I have helped, though strait was the place where he stood, when the weakling's fire-stick gave no spark, and he wavered this way and that ;

And many the guests of the night, when the chill north wind was blowing, have I regaled with juicy slices of the hump of good fat camels ;

And many the on-coming [troop of horse], like flocks of sand-grouse flying down to the water, that raise high with their hoof-beats the clouds of dark dust,

Have I checked with a steed like a wolf, stout where the heel strikes, long and clean in the legs, a steady galloper when his sides are drenched with sweat,

And with a tawny spear of al-Khatt, whose blade shines like a fire of dry thorn-bushes on which I have heaped fresh fuel so that it blazes up.

And many the true-hearted comrades I have plied with the morning draught of strong wine, what time the cock crowed shrilly in the darkness of night —

Wine that glides smoothly down the gullet, tawny, unmixed, while their hands pass from one to the other morsels of flesh roasted hastily on hot stones,

And wine mixed with water .of which the bubbles leap to the surface, what time the warbling singer is filled full therewith.

And many the troop of pasturing camels, what time the coward choked with his spittle, have I protected, when the crier called loudly for help time after time ;

And many the watching-place I have mounted as the evening drew on, like as the falcon takes up his place to watch for the prey,

As the scout of an army or of a troop of horse assembled for a foray, what time a weakling tribesman cannot captain his men ;

And when the darkness cleared away I sent them forth on their errand — he that looked on them would liken them to a pack of famished wolves.

When the troop rises to a rough upland plain, it pares away with its hoofs its highest parts ; and when it goes down to the low ground, it stirs up about itself a canopy of dust ;

And they ceased not until their spears brought home booty of captives and a herd of camels like red hills from a place far away.

[Yea, I am one of a tribe whose lances in war are to their foes a poison mingled with their meat ;]

Skilled are they in raids : their prey escapes not their horsemen, what time fright paralyses the coward who cannot bestride a steed.

Yea, we gave the men of Farir and Buhtur to drink, with every band of ours, the spear-head and the part of the shaft entering therein — .

And Ma'n too ; and of the two tribes of Jadllah our horse left 'Amirah and as-Sillakhm fallen headlong, smitten with the sword.

And on the Day of Jurad our spears made dead meat of Yazid — and there had not passed by us a gazelle with one horn broken.

And the son of Hisn spent the summer heats in our tents a captive, tending the sores caused by the thongs of leather with the hair on with which his arms were bound.

And of the rider of Mardud our spears distributed the flesh [as it were a slaughtered camel], and they left Mas'ud a prey for hyaenas and wolves.