Page:The L-poem of the Arabs.djvu/29



And on a day of (the canicular period of) Sirius, when his gossamer floats melting about, and his vipers, among his: over-heated rocks, writhe in agony,

I set up my face right against it, with no screen in front thereof, and no covert, save a tattered At-hami rag,

And a shaggy head of hair, on which when the wind blows, there fly out, as fluffs from its tufts, what might be combed away;

Far, in time, from the touch of oil, and from a riddance of vermin; soiled with filth; dishevelled.

And if thou see me, like an antelope of the sands, exposed to the sun on scanty fare, I go barefoot, and I wear no sandals.

For verily, I am a slave to patience. I wear its armour over the like of the heart of the wolf-hyana; and discretion I practise.

(I am a man) persecuted by assaults that imperil life and limb, and that gamble on his flesh as against his death shriek,-which of them is destined to be first had;

And a familiar of cares, which cease not to revisit him, returning like the quartan ague; nay, which are yet heavier to bear.

When they beset me, I drive them away. Then, verily, they spring round, and come upon me from a little below, and from just above.

And in a wilderness, (bare) as the back of a shield, which I have traversed, the hither and thither portions of the interior of which are not usually travelled through,

The beginnings of which I have brought together with its endings (by journeying); mounting on a hill-top, to sit down at times; and (again) standing up erect (on the out look for foes).