[No. 2, 
111 C. J. Ly all —Translations from the Hamaseh . 
Notes. 
Metro Tawil, first form, as in No. VI. 
Abu Sakhr of HuSeyl, the author, was a poet of the early clays of 
el-Islam, chiefly renowned as a writer of erotic poetry. 
v. 1. The force which the repetition of allacti here gives to the origi¬ 
nal can hardly he adequately rendered in English. I have attempted to 
represent it hy extreme concision, and thus, while the last two verses of 
the poem are rendered hy four short lines each, the first two have only two 
lines apiece. The following is a literal translation of the latter 
“ Yea, by Him who brings weeping and laughter—hy Him 
who slays and brings to life—hy Him whose command is the only power ! 
Verily she left me to envy the wild creatures of the field, when I see 
a pair of them wandering together, with no fear to terrify them!” 
v. 3. Here the translation is as nearly as possible literal. “ The last 
of all days,” el-Hashr, is the Hay of the Resurrection. 
v. 4. This verse is susceptible of two interpretations, depending on 
the various meanings of ed-dahr and sa l a. The former may either mean 
“the World,” that is, the people of the World, the worldlings, or it may 
be rendered “ Time” ; and the latter may mean “ to be busy, to work 
actively,” or “ to run.” If the former interpretation be chosen, the render¬ 
ing I have given above will express the sense— “ I wondered how 
actively those unkindly ones about us worked to part us: but when they 
succeeded, then their activity ceased.” If the latter, the moaning is—“I 
wondered how swiftly the time sped between me and her while we were 
united: but when the space of our union came to an end, then Time 
seemed to have ceased to move at all” 5 or, metrically— 
“ I marvelled how swiftly the time sped 
between us the moment we met: 
But when that brief moment was ended, 
how wearily dragged he his feet !” 
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