And the topmost crest, on the morrow, of al-Mujaimir's cairn,
was heaped with the flood-borne wrack, like wool on a distaff wound.
FROM THE 'MU 'ALLAKÂT' OF ZUHÉIR
A lament for the desertion, through a war, of his former home and the haunts of his tribe;
Translation of C. J. Lyall.
I
Are they of Umm Aufà's tents--these black lines that speak no word
in the stony plain of al-Mutathellam and al-Darraj?
Yea, and the place where his camp stood in ar-Rakmatan is now
like the tracery drawn afresh by the veins of the inner wrist.