His Camel

SO leave her, and cast care from thy heart with a sturdy mount- a camel that ambles tireless, carrying writers twain ;

To call Harith, the generous Lord, I drive her unsparing on, with pantings that shake her breast and through her ribs and flanks;

A fleet runner whose flesh over sides and where neck meets hump has vanished beneath noon-tides hot breath and the onward press;

And yet after night's long toil the dawn breaks and finds her fresh as antelope, young and strong, that flees from the hunter's pack;

They crouched by the arta-brake, the hunters, and thought to win a safe prey; but she escaped their shafts and pursuing hounds.

So travels my beast, and makes her object a man far off, and little by little gains the way to his bounteous hand.

Yet, thou wast her labor's end- God keep thee from curse, O King! And through all the deserts sameness sped she, beset with fears.

Towards thee the Pole- stars led, and there where man's feet had passed a track plain to see that wound cairns over ridges scarred.

There bodies of beasts outworn lay thickly along the road, their bones gleaming white, their hides all shrivelled and hard and dry.

I bring her to drink the dregs of cisternsall mire and draff; and if she mislikes it, all the choice is to journey on.

Alqamah