You will see _Sherifa_:[16] a haughty damsel; She is haughty, she is noble, I have seen it in writing; Her long hair falls with grace On her white and ample shoulders; You would say it was the sable plumes of the ostrich That dwells in the desert and sings beside its brood. Her eyelids are bows brought from the negro-land; And her eye-lashes, you would swear that it was the beard of an ear of corn Ripened by the eye of light[17] towards the end of summer; Her eyes are the eyes of the gazelle Troubled about her little ones, Or, rather, it is the flash that precedes the thunder In the middle of the night. Her mouth is admirable, Her breath sugar and honey, And her fine set of teeth resemble the hailstones Which the winter in its fury sows over our land. Her neck is as the standard which our warriors plant in the ground To defy the enemy and rally the runaways, And her faultless body outvies the marble Which is used for building the pillars of our mosques. Fair as the moon around which gathers the night, She shines like a star undimmed by a cloud. Tell her that she has wounded her lover With two thrusts of a poniard, one in the eyes, the other in the heart. Love is no light burden. I ask of the Almighty to give unto us water; We are in the springtime And the rain has tarried too long for the people of flocks. I am hungry, I am fasting like a Ramadan moon. They are at Askoura, praise be to Allah! Bring me my horse! And you there, strike the tents! I go to seek my uncle; He will forgive the son of his brother; We shall be reconciled to one another, And by the head of the Prophet, I will give a feast in which the young men shall appear With shining stirrups and saddles richly embroidered; Powder shall be burnt[18] to the sound of the flute and the tabour; I will marry Mebrouk And his offspring shall be called the offspring of well tended mares. O tribes of the Sahara! You claim to possess camels;[19] But camels, you are aware, Care only for those who can defend them; And those who can defend them are my brethren, Because they know in the fight how to crush bones of the rebellious.