1877.] life of the poet as given in the Kit&b-el-Aghani. 85 
12 The camel-litters of the tribe stirred thy longing, what time they 
[moved away 
and crept into the litters hung with cotton, as the wooden frame- 
[work creaked 
13 —The litters hung all round, over their frame of wood, 
with hangings, thin veils and pictured curtains of wool. 
14 They began their journey in bands, wide-eyed as the wild cows of 
[Tudih, 
or deer of Wejrah as they watch their fawns lying around. 
15 They were started on their way, and the sun-mist fell oft them, as 
[though 
they were low rocky ridges of Bisheh, its tamarisks and its boulders. 
16 Nay—why dost thou dwell on the thought of Nawar ? for she is gone, 
and severed is all that bound her to thee, whether strong or weak. 
17 Of Murrah was she : she halted in Feyd, then she travelled on 
to those of el-Hijaz. How then canst thou reach to her 
18 On the Eastward slopes of Aja’ and Selma, or in Mohajjar 
where Eardeh and er-Rukham cut her oft from thy coming ? 
19 Or it may be she went to el-Yemen, and then her abode 
should be in Wihaf el-Qahr, or Tilkham, in Suwa’iq. 
20 Cut short then thy longing for one whose converse is changed to thee: 
and verily the best in affection is he who knows how to cut its 
[bonds. 
21 Give freely thy best love to him who loves thee—there remains to 
[thee 
the power to flee him when his love limps and its straightness 
[bends to a fall: 
22 To flee on a camel spent with journeyings, which have left of her 
yet something, her back and hump both thin and spare. 
23 When her flesh has fallen away, and her flanks grown spare and lean, 
and the strap which ties her shoe to her pastern is cut to pieces with 
[use, 
24 Then she bends joyfully to the rein, eager to start, as though 
she were a dusky red cloud whose cloudlets drained of rain have 
[sped away on the South wind: 
25 Or a wild she-ass great with young, mated to a white-bellied male 
[whose sides 
bear the marks of his fights with the stallion-asses, their blows 
[and their bites. 
26 He takes his way with her to the uplands among the hills, his sides 
[all scarred, 
with jealousy in his heart roused by her rebellion and her desire. 
