Page:The L-poem of the Arabs.djvu/27



Open-jawed, wide-mouthed, as though their cheeks were splinters of staves; morose-looking, and determined.

Then he howls, and they howl, in the wide waste; as though they and he were bereaved ones, lamenting upon some high place.

And he becomes quiet, and they become quiet; and, he imitates, and they imitate him; provisionless wanderers, whom he consoles, and who console him, he wandering pro visionless.

He complains, and they complain; then, he refrains at last, and they refrain. And verily, patience, if complaint avail not, is more seemly!

And he goes back; and they go back in all haste; and all of them are busily intent on what the decent one keeps secret.

And the cinereous sandgrouse birds drink my leavings, after they have travelled a whole night, their sides audibly panting (with thirst and fatigue);

I strive, and they strive; and I quicken my pace, and they lag behind; and a leisurely harbinger, in me, has thus been allowed to tuck up his skirts;

Then I turn back from them; and they tumble over at its margin, which their chins and breasts embrace;

As though their tumult, on each side of, and round about. it, (were that of) congregations settling down from migrating tribes

Coming to it from divers quarters; so that it collects them, as one watering-place collects the camel-troops of various tent-groups.

So they sip a scanty turbid puddle. Then they pass on, as though they were a caravan hasting away from Uhätza with the dawn.