Ode CXII: Saduf has departed, and her lover's

Saduf has departed, and her lover's heart has been reft away : far off is Saduf, and alienated from thee.

She has left in thy keeping a crippling disease — her phantom to visit thee nightly in thy sleep and possess thy dreams.

She has taken another lover instead of thee, and her people have severed themselves from us : verily the wealthy is ungentle with him that hath no goods !

Yea, if thou seest my camels [moaning with home-sickness,] as though their breasts were hollow reeds in the hands of flute-players,

Yet did I chide them, when I was afflicted by their moans — and there followed upon the whimper of yearning a braying and a grating of teeth.

[I said to my beast — ] ' Shame to thee ! verily thy master's purpose is to hasten to the land between Hazrah and ath-Thuwair '.]

And she returned no answer, but the tears followed one another down from her eyes : verily the noble spirit is patient under whatsoever befalls !

And there came back to her, what time the water for her drinking became scant, the memory of days of spring and summer spent in the sand-skirt of Nawadir :

But when she came to the late-summer heats, her abode was the hills of al-Qallb, then 'Ardah and then Afuf.

But when winter came upon her, then her habitation was in a land which the spears dare not come nigh, a country of sown fields.

And ofttimes have I come down into a rich pasture, far away from any dwelling, the first of men to visit it, wherein were wild kine bending over their younglings newly born ;

Quickly did they fly to their covert, there in al-Faruq and Thabrah, when I came into view, — [white and shining] as though they were sword-blades !

And time was I followed with the horsemen, while my weapons were borne by a short-haired mare, high in the withers, an outstripper :

She casts ahead rapid glances from her eyes, with an eyeball sunk deep in the socket, protected by a lofty ridge of bone above.

And [I have sat in] assemblies of men fair of face, mighty, red in the gums, whose speech is acceptable to all —

The lords of Nakhlah and al-Quraidh and Sahim : yea, thus am I, a familiar friend, easily accepted by all as a companion :

[Yet with all this] I am obedient to thee ; and next, I ask of my people help — and all of them are confederate against me !

Without any crime committed by me among them — and I am not, if my lineage is traced out, to be rejected from their stock.

And many the secluded pool with fresh cold water, that lies in a land where men wander astray — when the winds set it in motion, its wavelets dance along ;

The south wind, while men slumber, has loosened its girdle, and, easily brought to birth, [has cast thereon its rain] with a thunder-clap ;

While the east wind holds back the firstling of its rain, and clouds rising up, heavy with water, their retaining-strap weak [and ready to give way], draw near:

Its sides [, brimming over with water,] thrust back the stones, and it seems [, from the effects of the rain on the herbage and flowers,] in the morning to be set round with [embroidered] camel-saddles of Himyar—