Al-Fari'ah bint Shaddad

Al-Fāriʿah bint Shaddād al-Murriyah (الفارعة بنت شداد) was a pre-Islamic Arabic poet, noteworthy both for being one of a relatively small number of known Medieval Arabic female poets, and for the famous short marthiyah she composed for her brother Mas‘ūd ibn Shaddād.

Works
Al-Murriyah's marthiyah runs as follows:
 * O my eye, be generous to Masʿūd son of Shaddād
 * with every teary gland
 * whose grief is manifest.


 * O whoever sees a lightning-flashing cloud
 * that I have gazed for through the night
 * pouring profuse rain upon the riverbed‘s
 * black basalt track.


 * With it would I water the grave of him I intend,
 * him whose grave is dear to me
 * though he were unredeemed.


 * Attester at councils, erector of edifices,
 * bracer of banners, burner of dams,


 * Slitter of camel throats, slayer of tyrants,
 * alighter on hilltops, breaker of bonds,


 * Orator of the eloquent, revolter of the ratified,
 * obstructor of water holes, dispeller of doubt,


 * Alighter at pasturelands, endurer of hardships,
 * dispeller of horrors, scaler of heights,


 * Gatherer of all virtues--as all who knew him knew--
 * his comrades’ ornament, the tyrant‘s scourge.


 * O Abū Zurārah, do not be distant!
 * For every youth will one day be hostage
 * to stone slab and wooden bier.


 * O Banū Jarm. did you give your prisoner no drink?
 * May my soul be your ransom, O Masʿūd,
 * from a burning thirst!


 * The thruster of the wide-gashing thrust
 * that is followed by a profuse gush
 * after a boiling froth.


 * Who leaves his opponent with fingertips jaundiced.
 * and his clothes as if
 * mulberry-spattered.


 * The buyer of wineskins for guests
 * that alight in his courtyard.
 * to the destitute,
 * abundant morning rain.