Elegy for Sakhr by al-Khansāʾ

A Poem

Illustration created by Midjourney

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Elegy for Sakhr by al-Khansāʾ

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Al-Khansāʾ (الخنساء, the snub-nosed) was an ancient Arabian poetess (c. 575–646), famous for her elegies, including this one on the death of her brother, Sakhr, whose name means ‘rock’—which is played on midway through the poem. The following translation is my own. It is taken from the Kitab al-Hamasah by the 9th century poet and anthologist, al-Walid ibn Ubaidallah al-Buhturi (ed. Beirut, 1910), pp. 271–2.

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Sleeplessly, I pass the night in vigil,
As one gapes blind with cataractic eyes.
I keep watch (unbidden) o’er the heavens,
Muffled-up in my mantle’s raveled folds.
For I have heard—and how I grieved to hear!—
The news that came from him who cries reports:
“Sakhr is dead and lies in his grave,
Cut down near a stone-cut tomb mid the rocks.
Go!—May God endear you to this man, who
Shunned injustice, who settled just scores, who
Bore a valiant heart that brooked no wrong, born
Of a stock of vigor and resolve, a
Flashing spear-point who made night into day,
Bitter in bitterness, freeman most free!”
I shall weep so long as the ring-doves coo,
So long as stars light the night-rover’s way.
No peace shall I make with that tribe you fought,
Till the charred cooking pot reverts to white.

An imaginative representation of al-Khansāʾ drawn by Lebanese-American writer and poet, Gibran Khalil Gibran