In fact, the camel yesterday was smitten./She left the other camels to come over./You have a lovely liquid wraparound eye./She stood there looking at me sideways./They feed their racing camels caviar in Qatar./The ruler of Dubai has said that he will try to buy Versailles.
-Mu’allaqa By Imru al-Qays, Frederick Seidel
“My poem is a John Philip Souza ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ cross-species salute to Imru al-Qays,” wrote Seidel in his accompanying “translator’s note”, although he called it a “tribute”, not a proper translation. Nor should he have, for back in the 6th Century when Imru al-Qays lived in a tent, not a half mile high skyscraper, and cooked on a camel dung fire, not a gas stove, Qatar and Dubai were still dry holes in the ground and Jimi hadn’t yet sung about castles made of sand.