The Poem of Antar
Have the poets left in the garment a place for a patch to be patched by me; and did you know the abode of your beloved after reflection?2
The vestige of the house, which did not speak, confounded thee, until it spoke by means of signs, like one deaf and dumb.
Verily, I kept my she-camel there long grumbling, with a yearning at the blackened stones, keeping and standing firm in their own places.
It is the abode of a friend, languishing in her glance, submissive in the embrace, pleasant of smile.
Oh house of 'Ablah situated at Jiwaa, talk with me about those who resided in you. Good morning to you, O house of 'Ablah, and be safe from ruin.
I halted my she-camel in that place; and it was as though she were a high palace; in order that I might perform the wont of the lingerer.
And 'Ablah takes up her abode at Jiwaa; while our people went to Hazan, then to Mutathallam.
She took up her abode in the land of my enemies; so it became difficult for me to seek you, O daughter of Mahzam.
I was enamored of her unawares, at a time when I was killing her people, desiring her in marriage; but by your father's life I swear, this was not the time for desiring.3
And verily you have occupied in my heart the place of the honored loved one, so do not think otherwise than this, that you are my beloved.
And how may be the visiting of her; while her people have taken up their residence in the spring at 'Unaizatain and our people at Ghailam?
I knew that you had intended departing, for, verily, your camels were bridled on a dark night.
Nothing caused me fear of her departure, except that the baggage camels of her people were eating the seeds of the Khimkhim tree throughout the country.4
Amongst them were two and forty milk-giving camels, black as the wing-feathers of black crows.
When she captivates you with a mouth possessing sharp, and white teeth, sweet as to its place of kissing, delicious of taste.
As if she sees with the two eyes of a young, grown up gazelle from the deer.
It was as though the musk bag of a merchant in his case of perfumes preceded her teeth toward you from her mouth.
Or as if it is an old wine-skin, from Azri'at, preserved long, such as the kings of Rome preserve;
Or her mouth is as an ungrazed meadow, whose herbage the rain has guaranteed, in which there is but little dung; and which is not marked with the feet of animals.
The first pure showers of every rain-cloud rained upon it, and left every puddle in it bright and round like a dirham;
Sprinkling and pouring; so that the water flows upon it every evening, and is not cut off from it.
The fly enjoyed yet alone, and so it did not cease humming, as is the act of the singing drunkard;
Humming, while he rubs one foreleg against the other, as the striking on the flint of one, bent on the flint, and cut off as to his palm.
She passes her evenings and her mornings on the surface of a well-stuffed couch, while I pass my nights on the back of a bridled black horse.
And my couch is a saddle upon a horse big-boned in the leg, big in his flanks, great of girth.
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poem by Antarah Ibn Shaddad
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