*
(Meter: mutaqārib.)
ALL NIGHT LONG you held your eyes open,
******never to lay down with the night’s sleepers, really.
It’s her you can’t forget. And why her?
******[Just because] some of what she promised went unkept?
[Tell her:] “Off, and stay away from a hard-hearted
******cutter of the ties that he does knit!
Women like you are not rare. Their delight is in young men.
******Their bodies are ever sticky with scented oils.”
The watchman was asleep when I went atop her.************************5
******Insensate were her slumbering people’s eyes.
So I spent the night in her husband’s place,
******master over her and her would-be master.
Who holds his own and turns his back on guidance
******from a scold is one I can admire:
the happy fellow who hangs around with nobles,
******but won’t hang back [from paying] when it’s poured.
One night he came seeking my answer about some wine.
******“[Let’s] make a morning of it,” is what I said.
We gave [our mounts] a rest, coming first for the cup’s vigor.*************10
******Of those we went before, we were the envy.
The rooster had not yet crowed when we pulled up [at the shop]
******where two colors flash [in one wine] under guard.
Through a sieve, a little blue-eyed man decants
******an early vintage, in no danger of it finding no buyers.
“This one–give it to us” we said to him,
******“for a white camel by a tether led.”
“You could give me ten [camels], and it still wouldn’t equal
******the likes of this!” he said.
“Pay him,” I said to our servant, and when******************************15
******he saw the proofs presented [by our coins],
he lit his booth with a lamp. The fringes
******of its canopy were steeped in the night’s darkness.
[I said:] “Our dirhams are all good, so don’t detain us
******while you test their metal for its worth.”
So he desisted, and poured for us a wine
******whose thunderous effect was followed by a calming one.
Mixed with black, its redness came to light
******when its foam subsided and its substance cleared.
The lowly man who samples it recovers his dignity,**********************20
******and the eyes of its coveters are wet with tears.
Left to settle in its earthen jar, it was
******[as free of chaff] as the stomach of a chick newly hatched.
The ewer made its way around our group
******in the grip of a mulberry-dyed hand.
Our camels wore their saddles overnight
******and our horses stood in felted blankets,
and all the while their riders drained their drink.
******[But] they stopped drinking before it stopped pouring.
Drunkenness eased our departure from the scene.***********************25
******It gave us purpose before taking us off course.
Formidable was the waste, waymarked by [rearing] piles of stone.
******Men with able bodies, you would think them.
Those who journey through it are told by their guide:
******“Don’t err and miss a section of the trail.”
I cut across it when mirages wavered,
******on a maned she-camel hurtling forward mightily.
Heaped with muscle, her baby teeth all gone,
******she bears the added weight [of saddle and rider].
Her pace is brisk throughout the night, even*****************************30
******after a day of nonstop travel. You see her [running]
like the wide-eyed [cow of the wild], when her calf
******has gone missing on the rugged heights of Mt. Jaww,
to her despair. And after [the cow] returns
******to where she roamed before her bereavement,
her insides are gripped all night long by distress
******when her soul realizes its grief and isolation.
At the eastern rise of dawn, a pack of dogs
******besets her, driving her on with necks outstretched,
and off she goes, her four [legs] striving,*********************************35
******and she with them. Their struggle is one struggle.
Shunning rocky ground where there is no cover,
******she refuses to be chased [out of the brush] onto it,
but when the fast ones can’t be shaken she whirls around
******and sets her heavy crown against them.
[The points of] her horns keep them clear of her flesh,
******driving into their ribs with all her might.
And that’s what I compare my camel to,
******on her morning trek across the upland pebblefields.
Her way leads to Salāma Dhū Fā’ish.************************************40
******The object of her assignation lies with him.
From here to your house, how many plains are there [to cross]?
******How many tracts of crags and hillocked sand?
How many arid badlands, impassable by night,
******to the accompaniment of the strutting owl’s call?
How many times must saddle blankets come off and on?
******How many stops for water stowed in skins?
Ḥimyar lags at making sure its children
******get enough to drink. If the tribe were well run,
you would be recognized as their better man.*****************************45
******Your flint produces more flame than do their flints.
Hostilities among them have cooled [for the time being].
******If they should heat up again, and catch fire,
and armed bands [be heard to] say, “Who is with us,
******now that war and its contests are back upon us?”
and the fat of their kidneys rile them up to it,
******ready to share their expertise in combat with the seeker–
[in that case] you will be one to endure the heat
******of war and the recrudescence of war, and to keep your property
swelled with spoils–you, to whom despoilments**************************50
******may happen, but not one to tally the loss
as you escort men to their hours of destiny,
******sowing war from the backs of camels got in raids.
[In war,] many women go through nuptials undowered,
******and for other women there is a demand for ransom.
And many [she-camels] are haled from one man’s courtyard
******and added to the steading of another man.
Jealously guarded though they were, their milk
******is given to new possessors, who call them by new names.
In wintertime, when bangles slip loosely down the arms*******************55
******of [once-plump] nursemaids, your generosity is unrestrained.
And when a suppliant woman is taken in by your people,
******their custodianship of her is like an uncle’s.
They do not try her chastity in exchange for their largesse,
******nor do they leave her in a pauper’s state.
Equal to the attack of whomever they face are the people
******[of Salāma Dhū Fā’ish], when they see it’s time for battle.