Page:The L-poem of the Arabs.djvu/17

 translation of Tugrā'i's poem also, to assert that Shanfara's verses, as they read in my rearrangement of the text, are as superior to those of Tugrā'I as it is well possible to conceive. The former are original, natural, rich, and soulfelt; the latter are imitative, bald, stilted, bombastic, and inconsequent.

The Argument of Shanfarà's poem, still according to my rearrangement of some of its distichs and sections, is the following:

Section 1, verses 1-3. The poet calls on his fellows or followers, "Sons of my Mother," to come with their readyprepared beasts for a new expedition, as he wishes to visit other familiars of his,—"a wolf, a leopard, and a hyaena,"— which represent, perhaps, the nicknames, or similes, by which he would allude to such confederates as Ta'abbata-Sharran, 'Umar son of Barrāq, and the like, as becomes more apparent a little further on, by a well-known rule of the Arabian rhetoric.

Section 2, verses 4-7, first praises the rare fidelity and courage of those familiars, but then asserts that, in the hour of danger, Shanfarà is even more brave than they. It then vaunts the generous self-denial with which he yields precedence to them at meals, " when hands are stretched forth towards the provisions"; to them, really his inferiors, "for the most excellent is he who confers favours." Shanfarà's venturing first to the tank beset by the "men of Bajīla," in his expedition with Ta'abbata-Sharran, is a very apposite instance of his superior readiness to encounter an apprehended peril.

Section 3, verses 8-13, recounts what, in the poet's estimation, compensates him for the absence of those who rightly value not his favours, or even remain unconscious of them; namely, his heart, his bared blade, and his twanging bow, "that moans like a bereaved mother whenever it parts with a sped arrow." It proceeds to assert that there is room in the land, or a refuge, for a brave and wise man, be he on an aggressive expedition or seeking his own safety in flight.

Section 4, in the next six verses, 14-19, describes more than as many different kinds of moral defects, from which the poet declares himself free—thirstiness in a camel-herdsman, uxoriousness in a young husband, timorousness, slothful foppishness, ungenerous spitefulness, sleepiness, effeminacy, bewilderment in the dark in strange places.

Section 5, verses 20-28, describes first the toughness of his bare "hoof-like toes," that crush the flints and elicit fire from them; next, his endurance of hunger, and his avoidance of all that might savour of laying himself under an obligation to a pretentious benefactor; asserts that should he choose to exert his power, all the necessaries that men require would be possessed by him alone; mentions his invincible impatience of wrong, his moderation in weal and in woe.

Section 6, verses 28-38, contains a vivid description of the sufferings from inanition of the "lean-haunched wolf," to which the poet compares himself.

Section 7, verses 39-44, sets forth the poet's boasted fleetness of foot, his outstripping the sandgrouse in its most anxious exertion to attain a scanty pool of water, and the tumult the birds raise when they reach it, as he turns away satiated.

Section 8, verses 45-50, describes the burning heat of noontide in the dog days—" when the gossamer floats about, and the vipers among the over-heated rocks writhe in agony" —which the poet faces with no other protection than a tattered rag, and a long-unkempt, shaggy head of hair. Like the antelope of the sands, he braves the sun on scanty fare and barefoot; for "he wears the armour of patience over the like of the heart of the wolf-hyaena, and he practises discretion."

Section 9, verses 51-55, recounts the cares to which the poet is exposed, from the assaults of his enemies, and describes his long pedestrian journeys through wastes " as bare as the back of his shield," and usually untrod by man; such