The Paris Review

from The Lamiyya 
After al-Shanfara


On leftovers ana breakfast   like the spleenish wulf the wéstenas chase. 

He sets out hungry,   nose in the wind, up the wulfhleoþu. 

After a luckless trek,   he gilleþ; and gaunt companions answer 

(Greyed out,   thin as yarrow stalks 

Or like bees   bereaved by a honey thief, 

Their mouths agape—   jaws like hacked tree trunks). 

He gellende and they gellende   across the desert forum. 

He standing and they standing   blinking sympathy at one another. 

He complaining and they complaining then mutually turning away— 

Comforted.   Wita sceal geþyldig. 
  
He turning back and they turning back   on ófost. 

Earm ánhaga   hiding his wretchedness. 

*   *   * 

Often ana remember a night so cold   a hunter might even burn his æscas— 

Ana stalked the gloam   with my sidekicks, hunger and misery, 

And made martiras of women and children   before the pitch-black lifted. 

And next day at al-Ghumaysa   ana overheard— 

“Our hundas barked and we thought,   Is it a wulf prowling? a nihtgenge? 
  
But they only growled once   then curled back to sleep, 
  
So we thought, Is it a sandgrouse   or beardleás? 
  
But if it was a scinn,   his ambush was stunning 
  
But if it was a man . . .   what kind of man does this?” 

Often, when the dog days   bartered mirages for vipers 

Ana bared my face to the sun   with nothing but my ravaged coat, 

My hair wild—   long, wild locks— 

Years since styled with gel   or deloused. 

For ana have crisscrossed   a printless windsele 

And ana have drawn   the wilderness around me 

Perched on windigum næssum   squatting or standing. 

There, fawning goats   like virgins trailing skirts 

Took their afternoon rest with me   as if ana were their billy 

With my white legs and long horns   picking through the mountain pass 

Ever receding   high among the caves. 

NOTES

ana/ána: I/alone (Arabic/Anglo-Saxon)
wulf: wolf
wéstenas: deserts
wulfhleoþu: wolf-slopes
gellan (gilleþ, gellende): to yell (yells, yelling); also used of stringed instruments
wita sceal geþyldig: “a wise man must be patient”
ófost: haste
earm ánhaga: “the solitary wretch”
æscas: spears
martiras: martyrs
nihtgenge: hyena
beardleás: hawk
scinn: phantom
windsele: wind-hall; hell
windigum næssum: windblown crags