handful of noble souls:
Though laden beyond all weight of man, they uplift the load.
So shield we with Patience fair our souls from the stroke of Shame;
Our honors are whole and sound, though others be lean enow.

ABU SAKHR

On a lost love. From the 'Hamasah': Translation of C.J. Lyall

By him who brings weeping and laughter
who deals Death and Life as He wills--
she left me to envy the wild deer
that graze twain and twain without fear!
Oh, love of her, heighten my heart's pain,
and strengthen the pang every night;
oh, comfort that days bring, forgetting
--the last of all days be thy tryst!
I marveled how swiftly the time sped
between us, the moment we met;
but when that brief moment was ended
how wearily dragged he his feet!

AN ADDRESS TO THE BELOVED

By Abu l-'Ata of Sind. From the 'Hamasah': Translation of C.J. Lyall

Of thee did I dream, while spears between us were quivering--
and sooth, of our blood full deep had drunken the tawny shafts!
I know not--by Heaven I swear, and here is the word I say!--
this pang, is it love-sickness, or wrought by a spell from thee?
If it be a spell, then grant me grace of thy love-longing--
if other the sickness be, then none is the guilt of thine!

A FORAY

By Ja'far ibn 'Ulbah. From the 'Hamasah': Translation of C.J. Lyall

That even when, under Sabhal's twin peaks, upon us drave
the horsemen, troop upon troop, and the foeman pressed us sore--
They said to us, "Two things lie before you; now must ye choose
the points of the spears couched at ye; or if ye will not, chains!"
We answered them, "Yea this thing may fall to _you_ after the fight,
when men shall be left on ground, and none shall arise again;
But we know not, if we quail before the assault of Death,
how much may be left of life--the goal is too dim to see."
We rode to the strait of battle; there cleared us a space, around
the white swords in our right hands which the smiths had furbished
fair.
On them fell the edge of my blade, on that day of Sabhal date;
And mine was the share thereof, wherever my fingers closed.

FATALITY

By Katari, ibn al-Fuja'ah, ibn Ma'zin. From the 'Hamasah': Translation of
C.J. Lyall.

I said to her, when she fled in amaze and