Hi! I need some help with some verses from Antara:

خدمتُ أُناسًا واتخذتُ أقاربًا لعوني ولكن أصبحوا كالعقاربِ

= I served people and took relatives as my help (that part doesn't make any sense... He helped the relatives not the other way round) but they turned into scorpions

[...]

أسد الشرى

= the lions of the colocynth (? is this a metaphor for desert?)

ما الفخر عند الملمات باللسا نِ ولا بانساب الرجالِ

الفخرُ صبرٌ في الحرو بِ على الملمات الثقالِ

= Glory is not in the adversities of the tongue (What does that mean???? Eloquence?) nor in the ancestral lines of men. Glory is hard (won?) in wars in the adversities of difficulties.

ما ساءني لوني واسمُ زبيبةٍ اذ قصرت عن همتي أعداعي

= I do not dislike my colour or the name of Zabiba, because my enemies are incapable of matching my ambition. -> is the second part correct? Why is qasarat feminine when the enemies are the subject (if they are)?

Thanks!