"Blame me no more, O comrades! but to-day Quietly with me beside the howdahs stay. Blame not my love for Zaynab, for to her And hers my heart is pledged a prisoner. Ah, can I ever think of how we met Once at al-Khayf, and feel no fond regret? My song of other women was but jest: She reigns alone, eclipsing all the rest. Hers is my love sincere, 'tis she the flame Of passion kindles--so, a truce to blame!"[452] [Sidenote: Love-ballads.] We have no space to dwell on the minor poets of the same school, al-‘Arjí (a kinsman of the Umayyads), al-Aḥwaṣ, and many others. It has been pointed out by Dr. C. Brockelmann that the love-poetry of this epoch is largely of popular origin; _e.g._, the songs attributed to Jamíl, in which Buthayna is addressed, and to Majnún--the hero of countless Persian and Turkish romances which celebrate his love for Laylá--are true folk-songs such as occur in the _Arabian Nights_, and may be heard in the streets of Beyrout or on the banks of the Tigris at the present day. Many of them are extremely beautiful. I take the following verses from a poem which is said to have been composed by Jamíl:-- "Oh, might it flower anew, that youthful prime, And restore to us, Buthayna, the bygone time! And might we again be blest as we wont to be, When thy folk were nigh and grudged what thou gavest me! Shall I ever meet Buthayna alone again, Each of us full of love as a cloud of rain? Fast in her net was I when a lad, and till This day my love is growing and waxing still. I have spent my lifetime, waiting for her to speak, And the bloom of youth is faded from off my cheek; But I will not suffer that she my suit deny, My love remains undying, though all things die!"[453] [Sidenote: Poetry in the provinces.] The names of al-Akhṭal, al-Farazdaq, and Jarír stand out pre-eminently in the list of Umayyad poets. They were men of a very different stamp from the languishing Minnesingers and carpet-knights who, like Jamíl, refused to battle except on the field of love. It is noteworthy that all three were born and bred in Mesopotamia. The motherland was exhausted; her ambitious and enterprising youth poured into the provinces, which now become the main centres of intellectual activity. [Sidenote: The _Naqá’iḍ_ of Jarír and Farazdaq.] [Sidenote: General interest in poetry.]