1. Whose dwelling is in Mutarah as though,
After weariness and weariness, it has been laid out anew,

2. With which your eyes trickled when you recognized it,
And how after pleasant habitation they have leaked.

3. So I have seen in it naught but lofty columns
And ashes like a dove become ashen.

4. The violence of the winds waft gently by it
And make the coursing dust wellbred.

5. They carry away the dust of the earth on all sides
And with rifts the winds have been wanton.

6. And every Samakeyh shepherd whose tent
Its poles the breeze has rubbed in the meadows until threadbare.

7. When his voice rises the sand dunes echo it
With smoothly rolling undulations opening out.

8. The jar of Ghifar is green, abundant,
You see water trickling from its joints.

9. A harmonious life at Dhu Rimth has passed,
And an even better at Huzwa before.

10. Nights the breeze calls me and I answer
To the egg-white sands rubbed smooth.

11. Soft does the breeze lead astray, yet it has not
Stolen their hearts when it drew near and rubbed gently.

12. And God has formed them in the fairest shape
And smoothly have they attained easeful life.

13. Languorous of gait, full ripe in the haunches as though
They were a surge of sand in a hollow made humped.

14. Short of step the camel shes walk when they have walked,
Their creeping on the sands can be reckoned shuffling.

15. When they fear estrangement yet estrangement is remote,
They meet between tribe and tribe as on a racecourse.

16. They go out in the evening and meet even as met
The two Masters of Ceremony, each Master of Ceremony by the other.

17. They converse briefly among themselves confidentially
And each says to each "Welcome."

18. Gentle as the touch of silk without any doubt
Or attendant confirming the mendacious conversation.

19. Ignorant of misery the milkmaids who have not seen
A goatskin-tent of Kalib ever patched.

20. Jarir sang of the rebeck foolhardily
Though he has tasted the days of the rebeck and tried them.

21. And when you met Taym on the day of Buzzakha
And the clan of Abu Shahm and the folk of Ibn Ushabb,

22. You descended upon them after their rope was pulled tight
And the people had not attached the nose ropes,

23. I saw you on the tree-trunks above Buzzakha,
You fled and feared the terrifying disorders,

24. So you were not saved when you fled, nor did
A father find for you from the house of degradation any escape.

25. For she who is challenged and whose men are captured,
The women of Banu Yarbu cry "Shall I flinch?"

26. They called "O Yarbu" but they did not catch up with them
And Yarbu was not their father more prolific.

27. You showed cowardice and did not strike with your angry sword,
You disgraced when you did not unsheathe the angry sword,

28. And what of the quest of the pack-saddles in the evening
When the Shaykh has surpassed Ghaym and Yathrib!

29. You leapt over Saad and the Saads are for others
And none but he has profited them from among those who mounted.

30. Your father counts as three tribal sections,
Taym and they claim superiority over Bakr and Taghlib.

31. And Saad without Ibn Mughira helping it,
When the summoner yells "O Saad!" and reiterates.

32. And we to Saad are victors, not failing,
While Saad to us has through the people been defeated.

33. They have an impetuous zeal which you cannot attain,
It slept among pots of glory the most victorious.

34. They are a folk - whatever of you they seek they request
While if they seek you, you will not find for them a request.

35. And if they slit the ears of Jarir and his nose,
He will acquiesce and no blame to him who does not blame.

36. They denied you water so you did not find
For your body other than by sucking any drinking-place.

37. For us is an observation-post in the sky over you
So I have no need for any other observation-post.

38. And the full moons of the high heavens and its stars
Are exalted - so you will not obtain from among them a planet.

39. There the son of Yarbu is above us over you
And you have become in the palace a groveling scabby one.

40. We give lodging to the progeny of glory in our homes
When the son of Yarbu has turned aside from glory.

41. And we feed the guest if he comes knocking by night
To have commerce with our threshing floors from the villages.

42. While the son of Yarbu feeds him when the guest turns to him
On a camel, shooting of the well-trained donkey.

43. For us is the glory of the "Days of the Dogs" over you
Sons of a dog! We do not fear with it to be called liars.

44. With it the Yemeni army attacked us and their
Troops struggled against it, a thick and sturdy struggle,

45. So it left none but plunder, disorderly,
With dromedaries of them, or a prostrate corpse being dragged,

46. A corpse of one struck down, or a destined victim who received
A blow which scattered his head from his shoulder blades.

47. For our slayer are virtuous days which he numbers
With them he won in the perilous days and made obligatory.

48. So which deeds, O Jarir, do you number
When the riders reined in on the day of Nu'man?

49. Do you call, repeating and confirming the wager?
For you have attained, since you call repeating and confirming!

50. I called Abu Abdul, but a base mother -
I do not call "O mother!" in generosity, nor "O father!"

51. As you were calling Qa'nab when Kulaib shackled you,
Yet your calling Qa'nab did not avail you at all.

52. So you fell on days for other than you, and their falling -
You went astray and did not go there at all on any path.

53. Venture against Yarbu - you will not find
For them a praiser unless it be a base liar.

54. For if you say, "Yarbu are my protectors and my family"
You disgrace and blemish protectors most excellent.

55. Yarbu was not from glory a timorous creature
Which we fear, nor the straight, well-bred branch.

56. Nor like Yarbu, after you were defeated,
And you became in the morning the tormented ass.

57. Do you hope for the protection of Ibn Mughira after
I stretched out to him the tent-poles until they shook?

58. And he fled and left the town disgraced for me
Abject, and the dogs snapped at him wearied,

59. While you were content with an ass of Kulaib in a race
Against a thoroughbred steed which on the day of the wager sped off.

60. You cuff at Yarbu as you warded them off
And warded off from the reputation of Taym so you frightened them.

61. So I fell short when you approached and you were not
Quarrelsome - for you have met with wrongdoing a quarreler.

62. So cast aside your staff and wipe your moustache hairs!
You have drunk Ibn Yarbu semen mixed and seasoned.

63. You are defeated, son of a semen drinker, and have not found
For you a father unless it be a base defeated one.

64. By the right of a man whose neck rope of glory was
And prostration, and litters something to wrap around,

65. We found you to be forbearing, folk of baseness and meanness,
And wont of the slaves to be base when they wrap around.

66. Are you not the son of a Yarbu'iyya whose son falls
From baseness into the hands of the midwives aged?

67. He was base as a sperm, then a clot,
Until his creation was completed and it branched out.

68. The worst of stallions is her new-born foal,
Base for its father which it should avoid.

69. The smell of her clothes fouls the room's drapes,
And her cheek has been stained by the perfumed beard dye.

70. When the mejtali looked at her clothes
He saw a garment whose skin has become infested.

71. And if she travels she shows people shamefulness
With it, and she can only conceal shamefulness by veiling.

72. The smell of the unkempt is like
Adders in them have crawled or lice crawled.

73. The pubic hair of the daughter of Yarbu combs out her clothes
As though it were the comb of a cock, its tip perfect, yet it drips.

74. So for this Jarir heaps abuse on their women,
A poet has granted it - when he braided smoothly.

75. I sang of the two branches of Wael's family
So I have perfumed when I opposed Bakr and Taghlib.

76. While when you opposed them you were merely
A flea whom the surge has made disappear.

77. And you met from among the horsemen of Bakr b. Wael
Finer horsemen than your father and of better scent.