{"schema_version":1,"access":"public","rights":"Public-domain or compatibly licensed source editions; provenance is retained per record.","work":{"slug":"muallaqa-imru-al-qays","title":"The Muʿallaqa of Imruʾ al-Qays","author":"Imruʾ al-Qays","tradition":"arabic","language":"ar","genre":"qasida","period":"6th c. CE","source_url":"https://ar.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A6_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%B3&oldid=532024","original":{"text":"### Verse 1\n\n1. قِفَا نَبْكِ مِنْ ذِكْرَى حَبِيبٍ ومَنْزِلِ\nبِسِقْطِ اللِّوَى بَيْنَ الدَّخُول فَحَوْملِ\n\n### Verse 2\n\n2. فَتُوْضِحَ فَالمِقْراةِ لمْ يَعْفُ رَسْمُها\nلِمَا نَسَجَتْهَا مِنْ جَنُوبٍ وشَمْألِ\n\n### Verse 3\n\n3. تَرَى بَعَرَ الأرْآمِ فِي عَرَصَاتِهَا\nوَقِيْعَانِهَا كَأنَّهُ حَبُّ فُلْفُلِ\n\n### Verse 4\n\n4. كَأنِّي غَدَاةَ البَيْنِ يَوْمَ تَحَمَّلُوا\nلَدَى سَمُرَاتِ الحَيِّ نَاقِفُ حَنْظَلِ\n\n### Verse 5\n\n5. وُقُوْفاً بِهَا صَحْبِي عَلَّي مَطِيَّهُمُ\nيَقُوْلُوْنَ:لاَ تَهْلِكْ أَسَىً وَتَجَمَّلِ\n\n### Verse 6\n\n6. وإِنَّ شِفائِي عَبْرَةٌ مُهْرَاقَةٌ\nفَهَلْ عِنْدَ رَسْمٍ دَارِسٍ مِنْ مُعَوَّلِ؟\n\n### Verse 7\n\n7. كَدَأْبِكَ مِنْ أُمِّ الحُوَيْرِثِ قَبْلَهَا\nوَجَارَتِهَا أُمِّ الرَّبَابِ بِمَأْسَلِ\n\n### Verse 8\n\n8. إِذَا قَامَتَا تَضَوَّعَ المِسْكُ مِنْهُمَا\nنَسِيْمَ الصَّبَا جَاءَتْ بِرَيَّا القَرَنْفُلِ\n\n### Verse 9\n\n9. فَفَاضَتْ دُمُوْعُ العَيْنِ مِنِّي صَبَابَةً\nعَلَى النَّحْرِ حَتَّى بَلَّ دَمْعِي مِحْمَلِي\n\n### Verse 10\n\n10. ألاَ رُبَّ يَوْمٍ لَكَ مِنْهُنَّ صَالِحٍ\nوَلاَ سِيَّمَا يَوْمٌ بِدَارَةِ جُلْجُلِ\n\n### Verse 11\n\n11. ويَوْمَ عَقَرْتُ لِلْعَذَارَي مَطِيَّتِي\nفَيَا عَجَباً مِنْ كورها المُتَحَمَّلِ\n\n### Verse 12\n\n12. فَظَلَّ العَذَارَى يَرْتَمِيْنَ بِلَحْمِهَا\nوشَحْمٍ كَهُدَّابِ الدِّمَقْسِ المُفَتَّلِ\n\n### Verse 13\n\n13. ويَوْمَ دَخَلْتُ الخِدْرَ خِدْرَ عُنَيْزَةٍ\nفَقَالَتْ:لَكَ الوَيْلاَتُ!،إنَّكَ مُرْجِلِي\n\n### Verse 14\n\n14. تَقُولُ وقَدْ مَالَ الغَبِيْطُ بِنَا مَعاً:\nعَقَرْتَ بَعِيْرِي يَا امْرأَ القَيْسِ فَانْزِلِ\n\n### Verse 15\n\n15. فَقُلْتُ لَهَا:سِيْرِي وأَرْخِي زِمَامَه\nولاَ تُبْعدِيْنِي مِنْ جَنَاكِ المُعَلَّلِ\n\n### Verse 16\n\n16. فَمِثْلِكِ حُبْلَى قَدْ طَرَقْتُ ومُرْضِعٍ\nفَأَلْهَيْتُهَا عَنْ ذِي تَمَائِمَ مُحْوِلِ\n\n### Verse 17\n\n17. إِذَا مَا بَكَى مِنْ خَلْفِهَا انْصَرَفَتْ لَهُ\nبِشَقٍّ،وتَحْتِي شِقُّهَا لَمْ يُحَوَّلِ\n\n### Verse 18\n\n18. ويَوْماً عَلَى ظَهْرِ الكَثِيْبِ تَعَذَّرَتْ\nعَلَيَّ، وَآلَتْ حَلْفَةً لم تَحَلَّلِ\n\n### Verse 19\n\n19. أفاطِمَ مَهْلاً بَعْضَ هَذَا التَّدَلُّلِ\nوإِنْ كُنْتِ قَدْ أزمعْتِ صَرْمِي فَأَجْمِلِي\n\n### Verse 20\n\n20. وَإنْ تكُ قد ساءتكِ مني خَليقَةٌ\nفسُلّي ثيابي من ثيابِكِ تَنْسُلِ\n\n### Verse 21\n\n21. أغَرَّكِ مِنِّي أنَّ حُبَّكِ قَاتِلِي\nوأنَّكِ مَهْمَا تَأْمُرِي القَلْبَ يَفْعَلِ؟\n\n### Verse 22\n\n22. وَمَا ذَرَفَتْ عَيْنَاكِ إلاَّ لِتَضْرِبِي\nبِسَهْمَيْكِ فِي أعْشَارِ قَلْبٍ مُقَتَّلِ\n\n### Verse 23\n\n23. وبَيْضَةِ خِدْرٍ لاَ يُرَامُ خِبَاؤُهَا\nتَمَتَّعْتُ مِنْ لَهْوٍ بِهَا غَيْرَ مُعْجَلِ\n\n### Verse 24\n\n24. تَجَاوَزْتُ أحْرَاساً إِلَيْهَا وَمَعْشَراً\nعَلَّي حِرَاصاً لَوْ يُسِرُّوْنَ مَقْتَلِي\n\n### Verse 25\n\n25. إِذَا مَا الثُّرَيَّا فِي السَّمَاءِ تَعَرَّضَتْ\nتَعَرُّضَ أَثْنَاءَ الوِشَاحِ المُفَصَّلِ\n\n### Verse 26\n\n26. فَجِئْتُ وَقَدْ نَضَّتْ لِنَوْمٍ ثِيَابَهَا\nلَدَى السِّتْرِ إلاَّ لِبْسَةَ المُتَفَضِّلِ\n\n### Verse 27\n\n27. فَقَالتْ:يَمِيْنَ اللهِ، مَا لَكَ حِيْلَةٌ،\nوَمَا إِنْ أَرَى عَنْكَ الغَوَايَةَ تَنْجَلِي\n\n### Verse 28\n\n28. خَرَجْتُ بِهَا تمْشِي تَجُرُّ وَرَاءَنَا\nعَلَى أَثَرَيْنا ذيل مِرْطٍ مُرَحَّلِ\n\n### Verse 29\n\n29. فَلَمَّا أجَزْنَا سَاحَةَ الحَيِّ وانْتَحَى\nبِنَا بَطْنُ خَبْتٍ ذِي حِقَافٍ عَقَنْقَلِ\n\n### Verse 30\n\n30. هَصَرْتُ بِفَوْدَيْ رَأْسِهَا فَتَمَايَلَتْ\nعَليَّ هَضِيْمَ الكَشْحِ رَيَّا المُخَلْخَلِ\n\n### Verse 31\n\n31. إذا التفتت نحوي تضوّع ريحُها\nنسيمَ الصَّبا جاءت بريا القرنفُلِ\n\n### Verse 32\n\n32. مُهَفْهَفَةٌ بَيْضَاءُ غَيْرُ مُفَاضَةٍ\nتَرَائِبُهَا مَصْقُولَةٌ كَالسَّجَنْجَلِ\n\n### Verse 33\n\n33. كَبِكْرِ المُقَانَاةِ البَيَاضَ بِصُفْرَةٍ\nغَذَاهَا نَمِيْرُ المَاءِ غَيْرُ مُحَلَّلِ\n\n### Verse 34\n\n34. تَصُدُّ وتُبْدِي عَنْ أسِيْلٍ وَتَتَّقي\nبِنَاظِرَةٍ مِنْ وَحْشِ وَجْرَةَ مُطْفِلِ\n\n### Verse 35\n\n35. وجِيْدٍ كَجِيْدِ الرِّيمِ لَيْسَ بِفَاحِشٍ\nإِذَا هِيَ نَصَّتْهُ وَلاَ بِمُعَطَّلِ\n\n### Verse 36\n\n36. وفَرْعٍ يَزِيْنُ المَتْنَ أسْوَدَ فَاحِمٍ\nأثِيْثٍ كَقِنْوِ النَّخْلَةِ المُتَعَثْكِلِ\n\n### Verse 37\n\n37. غَدَائِرُهُ مُسْتَشْزِرَاتٌ إلَى العُلا\nتَضِلُّ العِقَاصُ فِي مُثَنَّى وَمُرْسَلِ\n\n### Verse 38\n\n38. وكَشْحٍ لَطِيفٍ كَالجَدِيْلِ مُخَصَّرٍ\nوسَاقٍ كَأُنْبُوبِ السَّقِيِّ المُذَلَّلِ\n\n### Verse 39\n\n39. وَتُضْحِي فَتِيْتُ المِسْكِ فَوْقَ فِراشِهَا\nنَؤُومُ الضَّحَى لَمْ تَنْتَطِقْ عَنْ تَفَضُّلِ\n\n### Verse 40\n\n40. وتَعْطُو بِرَخْصٍ غَيْرَ شَشْنٍ كَأَنَّهُ\nأَسَارِيْعُ ظَبْيٍ أَوْ مَسَاويْكُ إِسْحِلِ\n\n### Verse 41\n\n41. تُضِيءُ الظَّلامَ بِالعِشَاءِ كَأَنَّهَا\nمَنَارَةُ مُمْسَى رَاهِبٍ مُتَبَتِّلِ\n\n### Verse 42\n\n42. إِلَى مِثْلِهَا يَرْنُو الحَلِيْمُ صَبَابَةً\nإِذَا مَا اسْبَكَرَّتْ بَيْنَ دِرْعٍ ومِجْوَلِ\n\n### Verse 43\n\n43. تَسَلَّتْ عَمَايَاتُ الرِّجَالِ عَنْ الصِّبَا\nولَيْسَ فُؤَادِي عَنْ هَوَاكِ بِمُنْسَلِ\n\n### Verse 44\n\n44. ألاَّ رُبَّ خَصْمٍ فِيْكِ أَلْوَى رَدَدْتُهُ\nنَصِيْحٍ عَلَى تَعْذَالِهِ غَيْرِ مُؤْتَلِ\n\n### Verse 45\n\n45. ولَيْلٍ كَمَوْجِ البَحْرِ أَرْخَى سُدُوْلَهُ\nعَلَيَّ بِأَنْوَاعِ الهُمُوْمِ لِيَبْتَلِي\n\n### Verse 46\n\n46. فَقُلْتُ لَهُ لَمَّا تَمَطَّى بِصُلْبِهِ\nوأَرْدَفَ أَعْجَازاً وَنَاءَ بِكَلْكَلِ\n\n### Verse 47\n\n47. ألاَ أَيُّهَا اللَّيْلُ الطَّوِيْلُ ألاَ انْجَلِي\nبِصُبْحٍ، وَمَا الإصْبَاحُ منِكَ بِأَمْثَلِ\n\n### Verse 48\n\n48. فَيَا لَكَ مَنْ لَيْلٍ كَأنَّ نُجُومَهُ\nبكل مُغار الفتل شُدّت بيذبل\n\n### Verse 49\n\n49. كَأَنَّ الثُرَيّا عُلِّقَت في مَصامِها\nبِأَمْرَاسِ كَتَّانٍ إِلَى صُمِّ جَنْدَل ِ\n\n### Verse 50\n\n50. وَقَدْ أغْتَدِي والطَّيْرُ فِي وُكُنَاتِهَا\nبِمُنْجَرِدٍ قَيْدِ الأَوَابِدِ هَيْكَلِ\n\n### Verse 51\n\n51. مِكَرٍّ مِفَرٍّ مُقْبِلٍ مُدْبِرٍ مَعاً\nكَجُلْمُوْدِ صَخْرٍ حَطَّهُ السَّيْلُ مِنْ عَلِ\n\n### Verse 52\n\n52. كَمَيْتٍ يَزِلُّ اللَّبْدُ عَنْ حَالِ مَتْنِهِ\nكَمَا زَلَّتِ الصَّفْوَاءُ بِالمُتَنَزَّلِ\n\n### Verse 53\n\n53. مِسِحٍّ إِذَا مَا السَّابِحَاتُ عَلَى الوَنى\nأَثَرْنَ الغُبَارَ بِالكَدِيْدِ المَرَكَّلِ\n\n### Verse 54\n\n54. عَلَى الذبل جَيَّاشٍ كأنَّ اهْتِزَامَهُ\nإِذَا جَاشَ فِيْهِ حَمْيُهُ غَلْيُ مِرْجَلِ\n\n### Verse 55\n\n55. يزل الغُلاَمُ الخِفَّ عَنْ صَهَوَاتِهِ\nوَيُلْوِي بِأَثْوَابِ العَنِيْفِ المُثَقَّلِ\n\n### Verse 56\n\n56. دَرِيْرٍ كَخُذْرُوفِ الوَلِيْدِ أمَرَّهُ\nتقلب كَفَّيْهِ بِخَيْطٍ مُوَصَّلِ\n\n### Verse 57\n\n57. لَهُ أيْطَلا ظَبْيٍ، وَسَاقَا نَعَامَةٍ\nوإِرْخَاءُ سَرْحَانٍ، وَتَقْرِيْبُ تَتْفُلِ\n\n### Verse 58\n\n58. كَأَنَّ عَلَى الكتفين مِنْهُ إِذَا انْتَحَى\nمَدَاكُ عَرُوسٍ أَوْ صَلايَةَ حَنْظَلِ\n\n### Verse 59\n\n59. وبَاتَ عَلَيْهِ سَرْجُهُ ولِجَامُهُ\nوَبَاتَ بِعَيْنِي قَائِماً غَيْرَ مُرْسَلِ\n\n### Verse 60\n\n60. فَعَنَّ لَنَا سِرْبٌ كَأَنَّ نِعَاجَهُ\nعَذَارَى دَوَارٍ فِي مُلاءٍ مُذيَل\n\n### Verse 61\n\n61. فَأَدْبَرْنَ كَالجِزْعِ المُفَصَّلِ بَيْنَهُ\nبِجِيْدٍ مُعَمٍّ فِي العَشِيْرَةِ مُخْوِلِ\n\n### Verse 62\n\n62. فَأَلْحَقَنَا بِالهَادِيَاتِ ودُوْنَهُ\nجَوَاحِرُهَا فِي صَرَّةٍ لَمْ تُزَيَّلِ\n\n### Verse 63\n\n63. فَعَادَى عِدَاءً بَيْنَ ثَوْرٍ ونَعْجَةٍ\nدِرَاكاً، وَلَمْ يَنْضَحْ بِمَاءٍ فَيُغْسَلِ\n\n### Verse 64\n\n64. وَظَلَّ طُهَاةُ اللَّحْمِ مِن بَيْنِ مُنْضِجٍ\nصَفِيفَ شِوَاءٍ أَوْ قَدِيْرٍ مُعَجَّلِ\n\n### Verse 65\n\n65. ورُحْنَا وَراحَ الطَّرْفُ ينفض رأسه\nمَتَى تَرَقَّ العَيْنُ فِيْهِ تَسَفَّلِ\n\n### Verse 66\n\n66. كَأَنَّ دِمَاءَ الهَادِيَاتِ بِنَحْرِهِ\nعُصَارَةُ حِنَّاءٍ بِشَيْبٍ مُرَجَّلِ\n\n### Verse 67\n\n67. وأنت إِذَا اسْتَدْبَرْتَهُ سَدَّ فَرْجَهُ\nبِضَافٍ فُوَيْقَ الأَرْضِ لَيْسَ بِأَعْزَلِ\n\n### Verse 68\n\n68. أحارِ تَرَى بَرْقاً أُرِيْكَ وَمِيْضَهُ\nكَلَمْعِ اليَدَيْنِ فِي حَبِيٍّ مُكَلَّلِ\n\n### Verse 69\n\n69. يُضِيءُ سَنَاهُ أَوْ مَصَابِيْحُ رَاهِبٍ\nأَمان السَّلِيْطَ  بالذُّبَالِ المُفَتَّلِ\n\n### Verse 70\n\n70. قَعَدْتُ لَهُ وصُحْبَتِي بَيْنَ حامر\nوبَيْنَ إكام، بُعْدَمَا مُتَأَمَّلِي\n\n### Verse 71\n\n71. فأَضْحَى يَسُحُّ المَاءَ عن كل فيقةٍ\nيَكُبُّ عَلَى الأذْقَانِ دَوْحَ الكَنَهْبَلِ\n\n### Verse 72\n\n72. وتَيْمَاءَ لَمْ يَتْرُكْ بِهَا جِذْعَ نَخْلَةٍ\nوَلاَ أُطُماً إِلاَّ مَشِيداً بِجِنْدَلِ\n\n### Verse 73\n\n73. كَأَنَّ ذُرَى رَأْسِ المُجَيْمِرِ غُدْوَةً\nمِنَ السَّيْلِ وَالغُثّاءِ فَلْكَةُ مِغْزَلِ\n\n### Verse 74\n\n74. كَأَنَّ أباناً فِي أفانين ودقه\nكَبِيْرُ أُنَاسٍ فِي بِجَادٍ مُزَمَّلِ\n\n### Verse 75\n\n75. وأَلْقَى بِصَحْرَاءِ الغَبيْطِ بَعَاعَهُ\nنُزُوْلَ اليَمَانِي ذِي العِيَابِ المحملِ\n\n### Verse 76\n\n76. كَأَنَّ سباعاً فِيْهِ غَرْقَى غُديّة\nبِأَرْجَائِهِ القُصْوَى أَنَابِيْشُ عَنْصُلِ\n\n### Verse 77\n\n77. عَلَى قَطَنٍ، بِالشَّيْمِ، أَيْمَنُ صَوْبِهِ\nوَأَيْسَرُهُ عَلَى السِّتَارِ فَيَذْبُل\n\n### Verse 78\n\n78. وَأَلْقى بِبَيسانَ مَعَ الليلِ بَرْكَهُ\nفَأَنْزَلَ مِنْهُ العُصْمَ مِنْ كُلِّ مَنْزِلِ","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/muallaqa-imru-al-qays/original.txt"},"translations":[{"id":"trn_muallaqa_imru_al_qays_mouseia","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"curated","note":"Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from all 78 verses of the pinned Arabic Wikisource witness for fidelity, clarity, structure, imagery, and cadence.","text":"### Verse 1\n\n1. Stop, you two, and let us weep at the memory of a beloved and a dwelling\nat the edge of the twisting sands between Dakhul and Hawmal.\n\n### Verse 2\n\n2. Then Tudih, then Miqrat—whose traces have not been erased\nby what the south wind and the north wind wove across them.\n\n### Verse 3\n\n3. You see gazelle droppings in its courtyards\nand level hollows, like grains of pepper.\n\n### Verse 4\n\n4. On the morning of departure, the day they loaded up,\nby the clan’s thorn trees, I seemed to be splitting bitter apples.\n\n### Verse 5\n\n5. My companions halted their mounts there beside me,\nsaying: Do not destroy yourself with grief. Endure with grace.\n\n### Verse 6\n\n6. Yet my only cure is a flood of tears—\nbut at an effaced trace, is there any place for weeping?\n\n### Verse 7\n\n7. As was your way with Umm al-Huwayrith before her,\nand her neighbor Umm al-Rabab at Masal.\n\n### Verse 8\n\n8. When they rose, musk breathed from them,\nlike the east wind arriving fragrant with cloves.\n\n### Verse 9\n\n9. My eyes streamed tears from longing\ndown my chest, until they soaked my sword belt.\n\n### Verse 10\n\n10. Ah, many a fine day you had with them—\nabove all, the day at Darat Juljul.\n\n### Verse 11\n\n11. And the day I slaughtered my mount for the virgins—\nwhat wonder at all the baggage carried from its saddle!\n\n### Verse 12\n\n12. All day the virgins tossed its meat to one another,\nand fat like the twisted fringe of white silk.\n\n### Verse 13\n\n13. And the day I entered the curtained litter, Unayza’s litter,\nand she said: Damn you! You will make me go on foot.\n\n### Verse 14\n\n14. She said, as the howdah tilted with us together:\nYou have lamed my camel, Imru al-Qays. Get down.\n\n### Verse 15\n\n15. I told her: Keep going, loosen the reins,\nand do not keep me from your fruit, tasted again and again.\n\n### Verse 16\n\n16. Many a woman like you, pregnant or nursing, I have visited by night\nand distracted from her yearling child hung with amulets.\n\n### Verse 17\n\n17. Whenever he cried behind her, she turned one half toward him,\nwhile the half beneath me never shifted.\n\n### Verse 18\n\n18. And one day atop the dune she denied herself to me\nand swore an oath she would not break.\n\n### Verse 19\n\n19. Fatima, gently—enough of this coyness.\nIf you have resolved to leave me, leave me graciously.\n\n### Verse 20\n\n20. If some trait of mine has displeased you,\ndraw my clothes from yours, and they will slip free.\n\n### Verse 21\n\n21. Has it deceived you that your love is killing me,\nand that whatever you command, my heart obeys?\n\n### Verse 22\n\n22. Your eyes shed tears only so you could strike\nwith both their arrows into the broken pieces of a slaughtered heart.\n\n### Verse 23\n\n23. And many a sheltered pearl, whose tent none dared approach,\nI enjoyed at leisure, never hurried.\n\n### Verse 24\n\n24. I passed guards to reach her, and clansmen\nwatching for me, who would gladly have concealed my murder.\n\n### Verse 25\n\n25. When the Pleiades appeared across the sky\nlike the jeweled folds of an ornate sash.\n\n### Verse 26\n\n26. I came when she had taken off her clothes for sleep\nbeside the curtain, wearing only a loose sleeping gown.\n\n### Verse 27\n\n27. She said: By God, you have no way out,\nand I do not see your recklessness ever leaving you.\n\n### Verse 28\n\n28. I led her out, and as she walked she dragged behind us,\nover our tracks, the train of her patterned robe.\n\n### Verse 29\n\n29. Once we had crossed the clan’s open ground\nand the bed of a hollow among ridged, tangled dunes enclosed us,\n\n### Verse 30\n\n30. I drew her toward me by the locks at her temples, and she leaned\nover me, slender-waisted, her anklets ringing with fragrance.\n\n### Verse 31\n\n31. Whenever she turned toward me, her scent breathed out,\nlike the east wind arriving fragrant with cloves.\n\n### Verse 32\n\n32. Slender, pale, not loose-bodied,\nher breastbones polished like a mirror.\n\n### Verse 33\n\n33. Like a virgin pearl in its shell, white touched with yellow,\nnourished by pure water no hand has troubled.\n\n### Verse 34\n\n34. She turns away, then shows a smooth cheek, and guards herself\nwith the gaze of a wild doe of Wajra nursing her young.\n\n### Verse 35\n\n35. A neck like the gazelle’s—not excessive\nwhen she raises it, and not unadorned.\n\n### Verse 36\n\n36. Hair that adorns her back, black and coal-dark,\nthick as a date-palm cluster heavy with fruit.\n\n### Verse 37\n\n37. Her braids rise high,\nwhile knots disappear among strands twined and loose.\n\n### Verse 38\n\n38. A delicate waist, slender as a braided rein,\nand a shin like the smooth stem of a well-watered palm.\n\n### Verse 39\n\n39. By morning, crumbs of musk lie over her bed;\nshe sleeps through forenoon, never belting herself to labor.\n\n### Verse 40\n\n40. She reaches with soft fingers, not coarse,\nlike gazelle grubs, or tooth-sticks cut from a smooth-branched tree.\n\n### Verse 41\n\n41. At evening she lights the darkness as though she were\nthe lamp in the night-cell of a monk withdrawn from the world.\n\n### Verse 42\n\n42. Even a man of judgment gazes longingly at one like her\nwhen she stands full-grown between shift and gown.\n\n### Verse 43\n\n43. Other men’s youthful follies have passed away,\nbut my heart will not withdraw from loving you.\n\n### Verse 44\n\n44. Ah, many a stubborn adversary over you I turned away—\na counselor tireless in his reproach.\n\n### Verse 45\n\n45. And a night like the sea’s waves lowered its curtains\nover me with every kind of care, to test me.\n\n### Verse 46\n\n46. I said to it, when it stretched its spine,\nheaped its hindquarters, and pressed down with its chest:\n\n### Verse 47\n\n47. Long night, clear away now\ninto morning—though morning will be no better than you.\n\n### Verse 48\n\n48. What a night—as if its stars\nwere bound by every tightly twisted rope to Yadhbul.\n\n### Verse 49\n\n49. As if the Pleiades were hung in their stations\nby flaxen cables to unyielding boulders.\n\n### Verse 50\n\n50. Often I set out at dawn, while the birds are still in their nests,\non a sleek, massive horse that shackles the wild game.\n\n### Verse 51\n\n51. Charging, fleeing, advancing, retreating at once,\nlike a boulder hurled down from above by a torrent.\n\n### Verse 52\n\n52. Bay-colored—the saddle pad slips from the middle of his back\nas rainwater slips from smooth stone.\n\n### Verse 53\n\n53. He pours out speed when other swift horses, worn down,\nraise dust across the trampled, hardened ground.\n\n### Verse 54\n\n54. Lean-flanked, surging—as though his deep-chested snorting,\nwhen his heat boils within him, were a cauldron’s boil.\n\n### Verse 55\n\n55. He throws the light young rider from his back\nand whips away the clothes of the heavy-handed, burdened man.\n\n### Verse 56\n\n56. Racing like a child’s spinning top,\nset whirling by the turn of his hands on a doubled cord.\n\n### Verse 57\n\n57. He has a gazelle’s flanks, an ostrich’s legs,\na wolf’s long stride, and a young fox’s quickened pace.\n\n### Verse 58\n\n58. When he bends into his course, the breadth across his shoulders\nis like a bride’s grinding slab, or the stone for crushing bitter apples.\n\n### Verse 59\n\n59. His saddle and bridle remained on him through the night,\nand he stayed standing before my eyes, never set loose.\n\n### Verse 60\n\n60. Then a herd appeared to us, its ewes like\nvirgins circling Dawar in long-tailed robes.\n\n### Verse 61\n\n61. They wheeled away like a necklace of banded onyx\nspaced with pearls on the neck of a nobly connected clansman.\n\n### Verse 62\n\n62. He brought us up with the leading animals, while behind them\nthe heavy ones stayed together in a herd not yet scattered.\n\n### Verse 63\n\n63. He ran between bull and ewe,\ntaking each in turn, without breaking sweat enough to be washed.\n\n### Verse 64\n\n64. All day the meat cooks worked—some laying\nstrips to roast, others hurrying a pot to boil.\n\n### Verse 65\n\n65. We rode home, and the stallion went tossing his head;\nwhenever the eye climbed his height, it slid back down.\n\n### Verse 66\n\n66. The blood of the leading animals upon his throat\nlooked like henna juice on combed white hair.\n\n### Verse 67\n\n67. Viewed from behind, his tail filled the space between his legs,\nthick and flowing just above the ground, not scant.\n\n### Verse 68\n\n68. Harith, do you see the lightning? Let me show you its flash,\nlike hands flickering within a mass of crowned cloud.\n\n### Verse 69\n\n69. Its brilliance flares—or the lamps of a monk\nwho has filled them with oil around twisted wicks.\n\n### Verse 70\n\n70. My companions and I sat watching it between Hamir\nand Ikam, though the farthest point I watched lay beyond them.\n\n### Verse 71\n\n71. By morning it poured water from every cloud,\ntoppling the great trees of Kanhabal onto their chins.\n\n### Verse 72\n\n72. At Tayma it left no date-palm trunk\nand no fortress standing, except those raised on stone.\n\n### Verse 73\n\n73. At dawn, the summit of Mount Mujaymir,\namid the torrent and its debris, looked like a spindle whorl.\n\n### Verse 74\n\n74. Aban, amid the streams of its rain,\nlooked like a tribal elder wrapped in a striped cloak.\n\n### Verse 75\n\n75. Over the plain of Ghabit it cast down its load,\nlike a Yemeni merchant arriving with his burdened chests.\n\n### Verse 76\n\n76. By morning, the drowned beasts of prey within it,\nalong its farthest reaches, looked like uprooted wild onions.\n\n### Verse 77\n\n77. Over Qatan at Shaym fell the right side of its rain,\nand its left over Sitar, then Yadhbul.\n\n### Verse 78\n\n78. With night it lowered its chest upon Baysan\nand drove the mountain goats down from every refuge.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/muallaqa-imru-al-qays/translations/trn_muallaqa_imru_al_qays_mouseia.txt"},{"id":"trn_muallaqa_imru_al_qays_plain","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"plain","note":"Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from all 78 verses of the pinned Arabic Wikisource witness.","text":"### Verse 1\n\n1. Stop, you two, and let us weep at the memory of a beloved and a dwelling\nat the edge of the twisted sands between al-Dakhul and Hawmal.\n\n### Verse 2\n\n2. Then Tudiha and al-Miqrat, whose traces have not been erased\nbecause the south and north winds wove over them.\n\n### Verse 3\n\n3. You see gazelle droppings in their courtyards\nand open flats, like peppercorns.\n\n### Verse 4\n\n4. On the morning of parting, the day they loaded up,\nthere by the tribe’s thorn trees, I seemed to be crushing bitter gourds.\n\n### Verse 5\n\n5. My companions halted their mounts there beside me,\nsaying, “Do not destroy yourself with grief. Bear it with dignity.”\n\n### Verse 6\n\n6. Yet my cure is a flood of tears.\nBut is there any recourse in weeping over an effaced trace?\n\n### Verse 7\n\n7. It was your old way with Umm al-Huwayrith before her,\nand with her neighbor Umm al-Rabab at Masal.\n\n### Verse 8\n\n8. Whenever the two women rose, musk spread from them,\nlike the east wind bringing the fragrance of cloves.\n\n### Verse 9\n\n9. My eyes overflowed with tears of longing\ndown my chest, until my tears soaked my sword belt.\n\n### Verse 10\n\n10. Ah, many a fine day you had with those women,\nespecially the day at Darat Juljul.\n\n### Verse 11\n\n11. And the day I slaughtered my mount for the young women—\nhow astonishing that its saddle and gear were carried away!\n\n### Verse 12\n\n12. All day the young women tossed pieces of its meat to one another,\nand fat like the twisted fringe of white silk.\n\n### Verse 13\n\n13. And the day I entered the curtained litter, Unayza’s litter,\nand she said, “Damn you! You will make me walk.”\n\n### Verse 14\n\n14. She said, as the litter tilted with us together,\n“You have crippled my camel, Imru al-Qays. Get down!”\n\n### Verse 15\n\n15. I told her, “Keep going and loosen its reins,\nand do not keep me from your fruit, tasted again and again.”\n\n### Verse 16\n\n16. Many a woman like you, pregnant or nursing, I have visited by night\nand distracted from her year-old child wearing amulets.\n\n### Verse 17\n\n17. When the child cried behind her, she turned half her body toward him,\nwhile the half beneath me never shifted.\n\n### Verse 18\n\n18. And one day on top of the dune she resisted me\nand swore an oath she would not break.\n\n### Verse 19\n\n19. Fatima, gently—enough of this coyness.\nIf you have resolved to cut me off, then do it gracefully.\n\n### Verse 20\n\n20. And if some trait of mine has displeased you,\ndraw my clothes away from yours, and they will come free.\n\n### Verse 21\n\n21. Has it deceived you that your love is killing me,\nand that whatever you command, my heart obeys?\n\n### Verse 22\n\n22. Your eyes shed tears only so that you could strike\nwith both your arrows into the ten parts of a slaughtered heart.\n\n### Verse 23\n\n23. And many a sheltered maiden, an egg of the curtained chamber whose tent no one dared approach,\nI enjoyed at leisure, without being hurried.\n\n### Verse 24\n\n24. I passed guards to reach her, and a whole clan\neager to watch me, if only they could conceal my killing.\n\n### Verse 25\n\n25. It was when the Pleiades appeared sideways in the sky,\nlike the folds of a jeweled sash.\n\n### Verse 26\n\n26. I came when she had taken off her clothes to sleep\nbeside the curtain, wearing only the lightest shift.\n\n### Verse 27\n\n27. She said, “By God, you have no way out,\nand I do not see your recklessness ever leaving you.”\n\n### Verse 28\n\n28. I led her out, and she walked behind us, dragging\nover our tracks the train of an embroidered cloak.\n\n### Verse 29\n\n29. When we had crossed the tribe’s open ground and reached\nthe hollow of a low tract with rugged, curving dunes,\n\n### Verse 30\n\n30. I drew her to me by the locks at both sides of her head, and she leaned\nover me, slender-waisted and fragrant, her anklets full.\n\n### Verse 31\n\n31. Whenever she turned toward me, her scent spread,\nlike the east wind bringing the fragrance of cloves.\n\n### Verse 32\n\n32. Slender and white, not loose or heavy,\nthe skin above her breasts polished like a mirror.\n\n### Verse 33\n\n33. Like an untouched egg, white tinged with yellow,\nnourished by pure water no one had disturbed.\n\n### Verse 34\n\n34. She turns away, yet reveals a smooth cheek, and guards herself\nwith the gaze of a wild doe of Wajra protecting her fawn.\n\n### Verse 35\n\n35. And a neck like a white gazelle’s—not excessive\nwhen she raises it, and not left bare of ornaments.\n\n### Verse 36\n\n36. And hair that adorns her back, intensely black,\nthick as a date-palm cluster heavy with fruit.\n\n### Verse 37\n\n37. Its braids rise high,\nwhile the hairpins are lost among doubled tresses and loose strands.\n\n### Verse 38\n\n38. And a delicate waist, slim as a braided rein,\nand a calf like the smooth stem of a tended, watered plant.\n\n### Verse 39\n\n39. Crumbs of musk remain on her bed into the morning.\nShe sleeps late and never belts up her clothes to work.\n\n### Verse 40\n\n40. She reaches with soft fingers, not coarse, as though they were\nthe pale worms of Zaby or tooth-cleaning twigs from a smooth-branched shrub.\n\n### Verse 41\n\n41. At evening she lights the darkness as though she were\nthe lamp in the night retreat of a solitary monk.\n\n### Verse 42\n\n42. Even a self-controlled man gazes yearningly at one like her\nwhen she stands fully grown between her shift and outer smock.\n\n### Verse 43\n\n43. Other men’s youthful follies have faded with age,\nbut my heart has not withdrawn from loving you.\n\n### Verse 44\n\n44. Ah, many a stubborn opponent over you I have turned back—\na sincere adviser, tireless in his reproach.\n\n### Verse 45\n\n45. And many a night, like the sea’s waves, lowered its curtains\nover me with every kind of care, to test me.\n\n### Verse 46\n\n46. I said to it when it stretched out its back,\nadded hindquarters, and pressed down with its chest:\n\n### Verse 47\n\n47. “Long night, clear away\ninto morning—though morning will be no better than you.”\n\n### Verse 48\n\n48. What a night it was, as though its stars\nwere bound to Yadhbul by every tightly twisted rope.\n\n### Verse 49\n\n49. As though the Pleiades were fastened in their fixed places\nwith stout flax ropes to solid boulders.\n\n### Verse 50\n\n50. Often I set out at dawn while the birds were still in their nests,\non a sleek, towering horse that shackled wild game.\n\n### Verse 51\n\n51. Charging, fleeing, advancing, retreating all at once,\nlike a massive rock hurled down from above by a torrent.\n\n### Verse 52\n\n52. Dark chestnut, with the saddle pad slipping from his smooth back\nas rainwater slips from a polished stone.\n\n### Verse 53\n\n53. He pours forward when the other swift horses, worn with fatigue,\nraise dust from the hard, trampled ground.\n\n### Verse 54\n\n54. Surging over his lean frame, his forceful snorting,\nwhen his heat boils within him, is the boiling of a cauldron.\n\n### Verse 55\n\n55. He throws the light young rider from his back\nand twists the clothes of the heavy, violent horseman.\n\n### Verse 56\n\n56. Racing like a child’s spinning top, which the child sets whirling\nwith the turning of both hands and a tightly joined cord.\n\n### Verse 57\n\n57. He has the flanks of a gazelle and the legs of an ostrich,\nthe long stride of a wolf and the close-stepping gait of a fox cub.\n\n### Verse 58\n\n58. When he bears down, it is as though upon his shoulders lies\na bride’s polished grinding slab, or a stone for crushing bitter gourds.\n\n### Verse 59\n\n59. His saddle and bridle stayed on him through the night,\nand he spent the night standing before my eyes, never released.\n\n### Verse 60\n\n60. Then a herd appeared to us, its ewes like\nyoung women attending Duwar in long, trailing robes.\n\n### Verse 61\n\n61. They turned away like the alternating beads of a jeweled necklace,\nstrung between pearls noble on both the father’s and mother’s side.\n\n### Verse 62\n\n62. He brought us up with the leading animals, while behind the leader\nthe laggards remained crowded together in a herd that had not scattered.\n\n### Verse 63\n\n63. He ran one sustained course between a bull and a ewe,\novertook them, and was not even splashed with sweat to be washed.\n\n### Verse 64\n\n64. All day the meat cooks were divided between those preparing\nstrips of roasted meat and those quickly boiling a potful.\n\n### Verse 65\n\n65. We returned, and the noble horse returned tossing his head;\nwherever the eye climbed along his body, it descended again.\n\n### Verse 66\n\n66. The blood of the leading animals on his chest looked\nlike henna juice in combed gray hair.\n\n### Verse 67\n\n67. When you looked at him from behind, his tail filled the space between his legs,\nthick and flowing just above the ground, not tilted aside.\n\n### Verse 68\n\n68. Harith, do you see the lightning whose flash I show you,\nlike two hands gleaming in a cloud mass crowned with storm?\n\n### Verse 69\n\n69. Its brilliance flares—or like a monk’s lamps\nwhen he has poured oil over the twisted wicks.\n\n### Verse 70\n\n70. My companions and I sat watching it between Hamir\nand Ikam, though the farthest point I watched lay beyond them.\n\n### Verse 71\n\n71. By morning it was pouring water after every lull,\ntoppling great trees face-first onto the ground.\n\n### Verse 72\n\n72. In Tayma it left neither a palm trunk\nnor a fortress standing, except one built solidly of stone.\n\n### Verse 73\n\n73. In the morning the summit of Mount al-Mujaymir,\nsurrounded by floodwater and debris, looked like a spindle whorl.\n\n### Verse 74\n\n74. Aban, amid the spreading streams of its rain,\nlooked like a clan elder wrapped in a striped cloak.\n\n### Verse 75\n\n75. Over the plain of al-Ghabit it unloaded its burden,\nlike a Yemeni trader setting down his loaded trunks.\n\n### Verse 76\n\n76. By morning the drowned beasts in it,\nalong its farthest edges, looked like torn-up wild-onion roots.\n\n### Verse 77\n\n77. Over Qatan, at al-Shaym, fell the right side of its downpour,\nand its left fell over al-Sitar and then Yadhbul.\n\n### Verse 78\n\n78. At Baysān, with the night, it settled its massive weight\nand drove the mountain goats down from every refuge.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/muallaqa-imru-al-qays/translations/trn_muallaqa_imru_al_qays_plain.txt"}],"retex_markdown_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/muallaqa-imru-al-qays/retex.md"}}