Page:The L-poem of the Arabs.djvu/23



That twangs loudly; of those with smooth flat surfaces, -. Nor a terrified scare-crow, whose heart is, as it were, as ornamented with clasps passed on to it, and a suspensory,

Which, when the arrow glides forth from it, moans, as #. Nor a stay-at-home, who never quits the tent; but flirts though it were a bereaved (mother) robbed of her child, who lifts up her voice and weeps aloud.

By thy life! There is no straitness in the land for a man who journeys by night, seeking or shunning, he being wise;

And in the land (there is) a refuge from molestation for. the noble-minded. And therein, for him who fears enmity, (there is) a place towards which to turn.

And I am not one impatient of thirst, who pastures his free-grazing she-camels by night, their young male colts being driven away, while they themselves are left with their dugs free;

Nor a faint-hearted poltroon who cleaves to his bride, and consults her in his matter in hand, as to how he shall manage;

Nor a terrified scare-crow, whose heart is, as it were, as though a mock-bird were therein, mounting and descending;

Nor a stay-at-home, who never quits the tent; but flirts with the women; who is occupied, evening and morning, with anointing himself and tingeing his eyes with stibium;

And I am not a good-for-nothing, whose ill precedes his good deed;—a drowsy-head, who starts when thou scarest him; who wears no weapon;

And I am not one bewildored by the darkness when my huge she-camel takes the direction of the trackless waste.

When the hard flint meets my hoof-like digits, there fly from it the fire-striking and the shivered fragments.

I make perpetual the term of delay for the satisfaction of the calls of hunger, until I kill it. I then turn away from noticing it, and I forget it.