[150] Ancient Arabian Poetry, Introduction, p. xvi.
[151] Qaṣída is explained by Arabian lexicographers to mean a poem with an artistic purpose, but they differ as to the precise sense in which 'purpose' is to be understood. Modern critics are equally at variance. Jacob (Stud. in Arab. Dichtern, Heft III, p. 203) would derive the word from the principal motive of these poems, namely, to gain a rich reward in return for praise and flattery. Ahlwardt (Bemerkungen über die Aechtheit der alten Arab. Gedichte, p. 24 seq.) connects it with qaṣada, to break, "because it consists of verses, every one of which is divided into two halves, with a common end-rhyme: thus the whole poem is broken, as it were, into two halves;" while in the Rajaz verses, as we have seen (p. 74 supra), there is no such break.
[152] Kitábu ’l-Shi‘r wa-’l-Shu‘ará, p. 14, l. 10 sqq.
[153] Nöldeke (Fūnf Mo‘allaqát, i, p. 3 sqq.) makes the curious observation, which illustrates the highly artificial character of this poetry, that certain animals well known to the Arabs (e.g., the panther, the jerboa, and the hare) are seldom mentioned and scarcely ever described, apparently for no reason except that they were not included in the conventional repertory.
[154] Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 83.
[155] Verses 3-13. I have attempted to imitate the 'Long' (Ṭawíl) metre of the original, viz.:—
The Arabic text of the Lámiyya, with prose translation and commentary, is printed in De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe (2nd. ed.), vol. iie, p. 134 sqq., and vol. ii, p. 337 sqq. It has been translated into English verse by G. Hughes (London, 1896). Other versions are mentioned by Nöldeke, Beiträge zur Kenntniss d. Poesie d. alten Araber, p. 200.
[156] The poet, apparently, means that his three friends are like the animals mentioned. Prof. Bevan remarks, however, that this interpretation is doubtful, since an Arab would scarcely compare his friend to a hyena.
[157] Ḥamása, 242.
[158] Ḥamása, 41-43. This poem has been rendered in verse by Sir Charles Lyall, Ancient Arabian Poetry, p. 16, and by the late Dr. A. B. Davidson, Biblical and Literary Essays, p. 263.