[8] Maisuma was a daughter of the tribe of Calab; a tribe, according
to Abulfeda, remarkable both for the purity of dialect spoken in
it, and for the number of poets it had produced. She was married,
whilst very young, to the Caliph Mowiah. But this exalted situation
by no means suited the disposition of Maisuna, and amidst all the
pomp and splendor of Damascus, she languished for the simple
pleasures of her native desert.


TO MY FATHER[9]

Must then my failings from the shaft
Of anger ne'er escape?
And dost thou storm because I've quaff'd
The water of the grape?

That I can thus from wine be driv'n
Thou surely ne'er canst think--
Another reason thou hast giv'n
Why I resolve to drink.

'Twas sweet the flowing cup to seize,
'Tis sweet thy rage to see;
And first I drink myself to please;
And next--to anger thee.

_Yezid_.

[9] Yezid succeeded Mowiah in the Caliphate A.H. 60; and in most