1881.] 
121 
C. J. Lyall —Translations from the Hamaseh. 
Content to bear hunger's pain though meat lay beneath his hand: 
to labour in ragged shirt that those whom he served might rest. 
15 If Dearth laid her hand on him, and Famine devoured his store, 
he gave but the gladlier what little to him they spared. 
He dealt as a youth with Youth, until, when his head grew hoar 
and age gathered o'er his brow, to Lightness he said—Begone! 
Yea, somewhat it soothes my soul that never I said to him 
e Thou best/ nor grudged him aught of mine that he sought of 
me. 
Ham.pp. 377—80. 
Notes. 
Metre Tawil , as in No. II: a short syllable occurs in the third place 
of the second foot of the hemistich three times in this poem, viz., in vv 1 ,a, 
3 ,b, and 12, a, which is exceptionally frequent. 
The author, Dureyd son of es-Simmeh son of el-Harith son of Bekr 
son of ‘Alqameh son of Juda‘ah son of Ghaziyyeh son of Jusham son of 
Mo‘awiyeh son of Bekr son of Hawazin, was a man of great note in the 
days of Mohammed’s boyhood and youth. His father es-Simmeh had led 
the Benu Jusham in the War of the Fijar on the day of en-Nakhleh, where 
the future prophet, then aged 14, was present (A. D. 585). Es-Simmeh 
(whose real name was Mo‘awiyeh, es-Simmeh being a title meaning “ the 
Serpent”) had, according to the Aghani, five sons by his wife Reyhaneh 
daughter of Ma‘di-kerib, a woman of el-Yemen : their names were Dureyd, 
‘Abd-Yaghuth, Qeys, Khalid, and ‘Abdallah, all warriors of prowess and 
renown. The stock of Hawazin had their abode in the mountains ana 
plains to the East of Mekkeh, and were divided into numerous branches, of 
which the Benu Thaqif of Ta’if, a strong town no great distance from 
Mekkeh, the Benu Suleym, the Benu Jusham, the Benu Sa‘d ibn Bekr 
(among whom the Prophet was fostered), the Benu Nasr ibn Mo‘awiyeh 
and the Benu Hilal were the chief. These were engaged in frequent con¬ 
tests among themselves, but, at the time when the event to which the 
poem relates occurred, were all united against the great stock of Gfhatafan, 
who dwelt to the north of them (‘Abs, Dubyan, ‘Abdallah, Ashja‘). It 
. were too long to tell here all that is recorded of Dureyd : his encounter 
with Rabi‘ah son of Mukeddem, of the Benu Firas, on the Day of el- 
Akhram (one of the noblest stories of the Ignorance), his wooing of the 
poetess el-Khansa, or his heroic death at the Battle of Honeyn (A. H. 8.—* 
A. D. 630). His fame as a poet rests chiefly on his affection for his 
brother ‘Abdallah, in his grief for whose death he composed much verse which 
has survived, and is conspicuously excellent among the poetry of that day. 
