Ode LXXXVI: I lay awake, and there came

I lay awake, and there came upon mine eyes no particle of drowsiness ; and by God ! my condition was not due to love or to sickness :

But tidings had reached me from a certain man — and my provision for my journey is not evil, as he falsely said :

No ! I hold far away my garments from foul speech : but some people's garments are defiled with treachery.

Hold then, Father of al-Khansa ! revile me not, lest thou gnash thy teeth with repentance in the days to come ;

And threaten me not ! verily, if thou meetest me face to face, [thou shalt find that] I have with me a Mashrafite sword, with notches on its smiting-edge from long use,

And arrows, alike in length, smooth and slender like leathern thongs, and a bow that twangs, made of the topmost branch of a hard-wood tree, not growing by water, and not of nasham-wood,

And a spear quivering continuously in the joints, tawny, hard, and a mail-coat studded with pins, smooth and even in the seams,

Double in its weaving, compact, or of the workmanship of Hutamah, that covers a man's fingers and palms and feet.

All these I borrow from stores of weapons going back to 'Ad — and in you aforetime used to be poverty in respect of treachery, or a total absence of it.

Yea, till but lately was I the protected guest of a house and the companion thereof : but now has Qais hardness in his hearing !

O Qais son of Mas'ud son of Qais son of Khalid, wilt thou deal faithfully with the mail-coats of the Son of Taibah, or art thou purposed to draw upon thee blame —

Blame that will cover with shame the man and his family, by the sarhah-tree with slender branches, in the shade of which is pitched the tent of leather ?