Description

The Camels
Original composition by Ahmed Moustafa, dated 1985CE / 1404AH
Rendered in oil and watercolours on special hand made paper, image size 120 x 75cm.

Inspired by the poems of ‘Alqamah bin ‘Aabadah Al-Tamimy Al-Najdy, who was born and lived in Najid – Arabia peninsular, died about 561CE / 65BH.

May this strong she-camel, solid as a rock settled in shallow water swept down by the torrent,
bring me to the rear of my departed company.
In her mouth, on her lips and cheeks is rich foam green from the pasture,
with her I cross desolate unmarked deserts where owls hoot in the dark.
Nor would she groan wearing, but anxiously sees my whip through the corner of her eye
like a frightened, lean-waisted ox hearkens for the hunters hear,
Fast as a male ostrich, red-skinned and red-legged with sparse top feathers, that feed on ripe colocynth and hemp,
grazing top shoots and extracting grains of stripped bitter fruit,
Whose mouth, like a cleft stick, barely seen, whose ears, cut off, barely hear.