4:54s C. J. Lyall— Translations from the Hamdseh and the Aghdni. [No. 4i y 
5 Fearful the tidings that reach us, heavy— 
the heaviest of burdens thereby is nothing ! 
Fate has cut of£ from me, Fate the tyrant, 
one mighty whose friend none dared to be little : 
A sunshine in wintertide, until when 
the Dogstar burned, he was coolness and shadow : 
Lean-sided and thin, but not from lacking : 
liberal-handed, keen-hearted, haughty ; 
He journeyed with Wariness, and where he halted, 
there Wariness halted herself his comrade : 
10 A rushing rain-flood when he gave guerdons : 
when he sprang to the onset, a mighty lion ; 
In the midst of his kin flowed his long black hair, and 
his skirts trailed : in war a wolf’s whelp with lean flanks ; 
Two savours had he, of honey and gall: and 
one or the other all men have tasted ; 
He rode Fear alone without a fellow 
but only his deep-notched blade of el-Yemen. 
Many the warriors, noon-journeying, who, when 
night fell, journeyed on, and halted at dawning— 
15 Keen each one of them, girt with a keen blade 
that when one drew it flashed forth like the lightning— 
They were tasting of sleep by sips, when as 
they nodded, thou didst fright them, and they were scat- 
Vengeance we did on them : there escaped us [tered I 
of the two houses none but the fewest. 
And if Hu<5eyl broke the edge of his sword-blade— 
many the notch that HucSeyl gained from him! 
Many the time that he made them kneel down on 
jagged rocks where the hoof is worn with running; 
20 Many the morning he fell on their shelter, 
and after slaughter came plunder and spoiling. 
HuSeyl has been burned by me, one valiant 
whom Evil tires not though they be wearied— 
Whose spear drinks deep the first draught, and thereon 
drinks deep again of the blood of foemen. 
Forbidden was wine, but now is it lawful: 
hard was the toil that made it lawful! 
lieach me the cup, 0 Sawad son of ‘Amru: 
my body is spent with gaining my vengeance. 
25 To Hufteyl we gave to drink Death’s goblet, 
'whose dregs are disgrace and shame and dishonour. 
