And the drift of its waters passed o’er the crags of al-Kanan,
       and drave forth the white-legged deer from the refuge they
          sought therein. 
     And Taima—­it left not there the stem of a palm aloft,
       nor ever a tower, save ours, firm built on the living rock. 
     And when first its misty shroud bore down upon Mount Thabir,
       he stood like an ancient man in a gray-streaked mantle wrapt. 
     The clouds cast their burdens down on the broad plain of al-Ghabit,
       as a trader from al-Yaman unfolds from the bales his store;
     And the topmost crest, on the morrow, of al-Mujaimir’s cairn,
       was heaped with the flood-borne wrack, like wool on a distaff wound.

* * * * *

          FROM THE ’MU ‘ALLAKAT’ OF ZUHEIR

A lament for the desertion, through a war, of his former home and the haunts of his tribe; Translation of C. J. Lyall.

I

Are they of Umm Aufa’s tents—­these black lines that speak no word
in the stony plain of al-Mutathellam and al-Darraj? 
Yea, and the place where his camp stood in ar-Rakmatan is now
like the tracery drawn afresh by the veins of the inner wrist. 
The wild kine roam there large-eyed, and the deer pass to and fro,
and their younglings rise up to suck from the spots where they
all lie round. 
I stood there and gazed; since I saw it last twenty years had flown,
and much I pondered thereon:  hard was it to know again—­
The black stones in order laid in the place where the pot was set,
and the trench like a cistern’s root with its sides unbroken still. 
And when I knew it, at last, for his resting-place, I cried,
“Good greeting to thee, O house!  Fair peace in the morn to thee!”
Look forth, O friend! canst thou see aught of ladies, camel-borne,
that journey along the upland there, above Jurthum well? 
Their litters are hung with precious stuffs, and their veils thereon
cast loosely, their borders rose, as though they were dyed in blood. 
Sideways they sat as their beasts clomb the ridge of as-Suban;
in them were the sweetness and grace of one nourished in wealth
and ease. 
They went on their way at dawn—­they started before sunrise;
straight did they make for the vale of ar-Rass, as hand for mouth. 
Dainty and playful their mood to one who should try its worth,
and faces fair to an eye skilled to trace out loveliness. 
And the tassels of scarlet wool, in the spots where they gat them
down
glowed red, like to ’ishrik seeds, fresh-fallen, unbroken, bright. 
And then they reached the wells where the deep-blue water lies,
they cast down their staves, and set them to pitch the tents for
rest. 
On their right hand rose al-Kanan, and the rugged skirts thereof—­
(and in al-Kanan how many are foes and friends of mine!)
At eve they left as-Suban; then they crossed the ridge again,
borne on the fair-fashioned litters, all new and builded broad.