Pre-Islamic Arab poetry
Weeping over the ruins
Is it Umm Awfa's, this unspeaking ruin \\ in the rocky plain between Darraj and Mutatallam?
And that abode of hers at Raqmatayn, resembling \\ retraced tattoo marks among the veins of the wrist?
--Zuhayr (d. 609)
Boasting
Well have the Ma`addi tribes experienced \ when on their plain the tents are pitched
That we are the ones who feed when we have means, \\ And we the ones who ravage when we are tested.
--Amr ibn Kulthum
