1. She saw me grow pale and my body waste away,
Seekers of relief from worries,

2. And how much have I faced after you
Of matters and terrors harder for me to bear.

3. I take them on and they know my inclination
Hastens towards the structure of grave affairs,

4. And an opponent whom I have warded off harm from
Without the malignity of conflict and ill omens,

5. And a lord whom I have averted injustice from
And he has attained the station of the oppressed,

6. And a rent which I have mended with patches
That fill the gashes and the flesh,

7. Like the shawls of nomads that are patched
Every day with scraps like tattered cloaks,

8. When the wild cats growl they take fright at it
And seek refuge in their filthy lairs,

9. They departed to hardship and great tribulation
For the nomads and poison of asps,

10. So they were their ships and endured with stoicism
Five in a turbulent, stormy sea,

11. I came to their settlements disheveled
And unkempt, covered in dust,

12. They probed with their tent pegs until they pitched
On level ground with passages like Sodom’s,

13. No, by your father, none alive is like
A neighbor who has lodged among them or a guest,

14. Nor for the traveler if the night surprises him
With mouthfuls of lint and straw.

15. The winds blew freely without rain
To the rooms, hastening the cool breeze,

16. And its youths wandered without any guide
In the abode of winds, wandering in the gloom.

17. When its houses lack provisions for a guest
Their cooking pots provide for him from the fats,

18. We do not slight their lean cuts
For the virgin hump and haunches,

19. But we bite with the sword from them
At the markets of meaty forelegs heaped up,

20. And how many among us when the abode displays
The people's meanness despite easy living,

21. They vie with the wind, no weaklings they,
Their manliness not buried away, worthless.

22. If you count the ancients, you will find among us
Generosities like those counted among the ancients,

23. You will find glory and hospitality among us,
Subduers of great deeds and archers.