The Seven Golden Odes of Pagan Arabia: Known Also as the Moallakat |
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Common terms and phrases
Abla allusion Amr Ibn Hind Amr Ibn Kolthúm ancient anger Antara Arabia Arabs asked bade Bahreyn Bedouin Bekr Béni Béni-Bekr blood Caliph camels chief colocynth couplet curtain dark daughter day-dawn death deeds desert Dobián El Hárith English Euphrates eyes fair father fear fled gazelle Ghassán Golden Odes hands hath Hátim Héjr herd Himyarite Hind's honour horse horsemen howdah Imr el Káis Imr-el-Káis Islam Kaaba King of Híra Kings of Kindi LADY ANNE BLUNT LEBÍD lord Maád Málek mares Moállakát Mohammed Abdu Móndir Mórra mother nága neck Nejd night noble Nose pierced ostrich pagan Pagan Arabs pasture peace poem poet pre-Islamic Prince proud Rábi recited riding Robía Shammar Sheykh slain slave slew sons stand stood Súlma sweet swords Syria Tághleb Táï Tárafa tent thee thou translators tribal tribe vengeance verse wife wild wine word Yémen Zohéyr
Popular passages
Page 56 - Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest, Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West. Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.
Page 32 - ... fire of my passion with tears, my heart would melt. But I do not complain ; though all my fears are on thy account, O thou perfect full moon ! O daughter of Malik ! how can I be consoled, since my love for thee originated from the time I was weaned ? But how can I ever hope to approach thee, whilst the lions of the forest guard thy tent ? By the truth of my love for thee, my heart can never be cured but by patience. O thou noble maid ! till I exalt myself to the heights of glory with the thrusts...
Page 6 - ... sleek to thy lips up-lifted, — pearls are its ornament. On her shoulders fallen thick lie the locks of her, dark as the dark date-clusters hung from the palm-branches. See the side-plaits pendent, high on the brows of her, tressed in a knot, the caught ones fast with the fallen ones.
Page 28 - Seeketh a safe issue, the forenoon through listening, now in front, behind now, fearing her enemy. And they failed, the archers. Loosed they then to deal with her fine-trained hounds, the lop-eared, slender the sides of them. These outran her lightly. Turned she swift her horns on them, like twin spears of Samhar, sharp-set the points of them. Well she knew her danger, knew if her fence failed with them hers must be the red death. Hence her wrath's strategy. And she slew Kasabi, foremost hound of...
Page 4 - There the hearths-stones of her stand where the South and North winds cross-weave the sand-furrows. • See the white-doe droppings strewn by the wind on them, black on her floor forsaken, fine-grain of peppercorns. Here it was I watched her, lading her load-camels, stood by these thorn-trees weeping tears as of colocynth. Here my twin-friends waited, called to me camel-borne: Man! not of grief thou diest. Take thy pain patiently. Not though tears assuage thee, deem it beseemeth thee thus for mute...
Page 5 - I execute. If so be thou findest ought in thy lover wrong, cast from thy back my garments, moult thee my finery. Woe is me, the hard heart! When did tears trouble thee save for my soul's worse wounding, stricken and near to die? Fair too was that other, she the veil-hidden one, howdahed how close, how guarded! Yet did she welcome me. Passed I twixt her tent-ropes,— what though her near-of-kin lay in the dark to slay me, blood-shedders all of them. Came I at the mid-night, hour when the Pleiades...
Page xiv - Africa into Spain. Knight-errantry, the riding forth on horseback in search of adventures, the rescue of captive maidens, the succour rendered everywhere to women in adversity, all these were essentially Arabian ideas, as was the very name of Chivalry, the connection of honourable conduct with the horse-rider, the man of noble blood, the cavalier.
Page 23 - ... fenceless, naked the flesh of him ; That he who guardeth not his tent-floor, with the whole might of him, cold shall be his hearth-stone broken, ay, though he smote at none; That he who fleeth his kin shall fare far, foes for his guest-fellows; that he who his own face befouleth none else shall honor him; That he, who casteth not the burdens laid on the back of him, sheer disgrace shall be his portion, waged as he merited; That whatso a man hath by nature, wit-wealth or vanity, hidden deep, the...
Page 6 - Chained hang the stars of thee fast to the rocks with hempen ropes set un-moveable. Water-skins of some folk — ay, with the thong of them laid on my naga's wither — borne have I joyfully, Crossed how lone the rain-ways, bare as an ass-belly ; near me the wolf, starved gamester, howled to his progeny. Cried I : Wolf, thou wailest. Surely these lives of ours, thine and my own, go empty, robbed of prosperity. All we won we leave here. Whoso shall follow us, seed in our corn-track casting, reap shall...
Page 32 - I not left in solitude, and could I not quench the fire of my passion with tears, my heart would melt. But I do not complain ; though all my fears are on thy account, O thou perfect full moon ! O daughter of Malik ! how can I be consoled, since my love for thee originated from the time I was weaned?