118 
C. J. Lyall —Translations from the Hamdseh. 
[No. 2, 
We offer to bear their weight a handful of noble souls: 
though laden beyond all might of man, they uplift the load. 
So shield we with Patience fair our souls from the stroke of 
Shame : 
our honours are whole and sound, though others be lean enow. 
Ham. TV- 125-6. 
Notes. 
The metre is the same as that of No. II. 
I have been able to ascertain nothing regarding the author ; from his 
name, Ibrahim, he was doubtless born after the promulgation of el-Islam. 
His tribe, Nebhan, was one of the divisions of Tayyi’. The sentiment of 
vv. 5—8 seems to shew that the poem belongs to the first days of the new 
faith. The stress laid on the word horr, “ free born,” in vv. 1 and 3 is also 
consonant with that age, when the Arabs were being thrust into the back¬ 
ground by the invasion of all important posts, civil and military, by rnawdli , 
“ freedmen” of foreign birth. 
v. 6. l ' The stock of our sturdy spear”: qanatan salibatan. The 
spear is here not the actual weapon, but the stubbornness and strength of 
backbone of the clan. Examples of the metaphor abound; the following 
is found in the Mo‘allaqah of ‘Amr son of Kulthum (vv. 57—59) - 
* 
fa'inna qandtana, yd ‘Amru, ' > a i yet 
i ala-l- x a < dd , i qalblalca ’an telind : 
*iztd 1 adda-th-thiqafu biha r shma'azzet 
wa-ivellet-hu ‘ashauza?iatan zabund —• 
l ashauzanatan : ’ icta-nqalabet , ’arannet 
teshujju qafa-l-muthaqqif wa-l-jebtnd. 
il In sooth our spear, o £ Amr, has outworn too many a hand 
that strove against it before thee, that it should be soft to thee ! 
u When the straightening-iron clipped it, it stiffened itself against it, 
and turned it back upon the the wielder thereof, stubborn and 
sturdy: 
“ Yea, stubborn : when it was bent to mould it, it cried out, 
and wounded the neck and forehead of the strais-htener.” 
The phrases “ the spear of such an one is hard,” or “ there is weakness 
in their spear,” are almost commonplaces. Et-Tebrizi quotes— 
lednet qandti la telinu lighdmizin ; 
fa'aldnaha-l- asbdha wa-l- amsd'u. 
