Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

703
47 2 The Life of Muhammad
The LIfe of ,,,"ll1lzammad
473
\\Tho marched from the sacred stones, r
And the armies of thy Lord the Lord of lords.
The stones of Mecca, making for Yathrib,
God averted battle from the believers I
With a loud-throated mighty force;
And gave them the best of rc".'ards.
Leaving the high ground well used paths
\Vhen they had abandoned hope, our bounteous King
In every conspicuous height and pass;
Sent dmvn His aid and scattered them;
The fine lean steeds led beside them
Gave ease to lVluhammad and his companions
Thin in belly, lean of flank,
And humiliated every lying doubter,
Foaled from long-bodied mares and stallions,
Hard-hearted, suspicious, doubtful,
Like a wolf who attacks careless watchmen.
Not men of pure life, unbelievers.
'Uyayna marched with the banner of the army;
May misery eling to their hearts, for
Sakhr led the confederates;
In unbelief they persisted to the very end.'
Two chiefs like the moon in its splendour,
The help of the poor, the refuge of the fugitive,
Ka'b b. Malik also answered him:
Until when they came to lVledina
And girt themselves for death their sharp svmrds drawn.
For forty days they had the best of Muhammad
Though his companions in war were the best.
They called for withdrawal the morning you said
'\'Fe arc almost done for.'
But for the trench they would have left them
Corpses for hungry birds and wolves.
Hassan b. Thabit answered him and said:
Can the vanished traces of a deserted place
Answer one who addresses it?
A desert \-"here douds of rain have effaced its traces
And the constant blowing of every high wind?
Yet have I seen their dwellings adorned by
Shining faces, heirs of a glorious past.
But leave the dwellings, the talk of lovely maidens
\Vith soft breasts, sweet in converse,
And complain to God of cares and what you see­
An angry people who wronged the apostle,
\Vho marched with their company against him
And collected tovmsmen and desert dwellers,
The army of 'Cyayna and Ibn Barb
l\1ingled \vith the horsemen of the confederates
l!ntil they came to Medina and hoped to slay
The apostle's men and plunder them,
And attacked uS in their strength.
They were put to flight in their fury
By a tempest which dispersed their company
The an;ab may mean either the stones set up to mark the boundary of the sacred terri.
tory, such as remain to this day, or the stones at which the sacrificial victims were slaugh.
teredo
\\.rar has left over to us
The best gift of our bounteous Lord;
High white forts and resting-places for camels \vhere [from their
rubbing]
Palms are black and where milk is plentiful.
They are like lava tracts and their bounty is lavished
On the visiting guest and re1ative-?
And horses 4 swift as wolves
Fed on barley and cut lucerne
With hairless fetlocks and firm-fleshed hindquarters,
Smooth their coats from head to tail;
Long-necked, answering the View hallo
As hounds speed to the huntsman's call.
Now guarding the tribesman's cattle,
Now slaying the enemy and returning with the spoil,
Scaring wild beasts, swift in \var,
Grim in combat, of noble spirit,
Well fed and sleek
Well fleshed yet thin bellied.
They bring coats of mail doubly woven
\Vith strong spears \vhich hit the mark,
And swords \vhose rust the polishers have removed;
I Almost an exact quotation from Sura 33.25.
2 Or, To whose hearts misery has clung
So that their hearts persist in disbelief to the end of time.
l A.Dh,'s explanation implies:
High white forts and resting~places for camels
,",,'here the camels have black necks and are rich in milk.
They (the resting places) are like lava tracts
Their bounty, &c.
S. renders rna'a/in 'palm plantations' andjudhu' 'trunks' and then has to take G?drib as
a metaphor of 'fruit,'
The verse is difficult, but it is possible to avoid unnatural metaphors in its translation.
The dung of the camels made the ground look like a lava tract.
• nazu'i' are horses imported from dsewhere.