463 — Umar ibn Abī Mu‘ādh narrated to us, saying: Abū al-Hasan al-Artabānī, an elder from Muzayna, narrated to me, saying: Abū al-Baydā’ narrated to me, from someone who saw al-Farazdaq walking in the funeral procession of Bishr ibn Marwān, leading a horse that Bishr had given him as a mount. When Bishr’s burial was complete, he hamstrung the horse and began to recite:

[Tawīl meter]

“I say to you, firm-knit of back, long seasoned
in racing fleet steeds, your frame drawn taut like twisted cord:

Would I not be miserly if, after him, I mounted you
for a day’s wager, or set out with you at a gallop?

I swore that, after him, never again would you be ridden sound of limb,
until you hobbled on three legs upon the grave.”