المعلقات السبع (The Seven Suspended Odes — Arabic text with English)

throughout breathes deep devotion and tacit obedience to the will of his lady. Even in the thickest part of the battle, when he is heavily borne down by the conflict to within an inch of his life, she is not absent from his imaginative mind, which, seeing the lustre of her teeth in the flash of the arms, welcomes them on that account, and loses all terror and awe. He is not a wild soldier, rushing rashly into the fight, but a considerate warrior, possessed of good sense, well acquainted with all the tactics of war, and very sensitive regarding his honour.

The language is in every part thoroughly consistent with the subject matter; it is very tender and pathetic where love is described, but where his warlike deeds are described, it is high, sonorous and forcible. The images and figures are generally such as are chosen from sights and scenes, usually met with by soldiers and adventurers, and serve well to give full effect to the sentiments they are used to illustrate.

This poem is introduced by the poet's expressing regrets at the departure of his beloved, whose society he never grew tired of. He recollects many places where he knew her in the passed times with many tokens of kind regard shewn by her. The many events of serious moment, which have, however, taken place in the meanwhile, assert stronger claims on his attention, and oblige him to travel (probably to the king) on the back of a fast-going she-camel, which he compares to an ostrich, alarmed at the approach of hunters. He then tells us how his tribe of Bakr are ill-treated by the rival tribe of Taghlib, who claim from the former compensation and amends for crimes of felony so falsely attributed to them. He then reproaches 'Amru, the author of the 5th poem, for his insinuations and lies regarding Bakr to the king, and for his intriguing to deprive them of the royal favour, and sneeringly draws his attention to the great prowess of Bakr as borne out by the fact that their blood never