1. Oh eyes, shed tears abundantly
Pour forth, ceaselessly, with no restraint

2. Seek not solace after loss so immense
For solace is defeated, and patience failed me

3. For one whose belly holds embers’ flare
Denying all sleep with fiery blaze

4. Upon the rock what hero compares
To the staunch, helping son of ‘Amr

5. To curb the vicious foe o’erstepping bounds
Usurping rights by tyrannous force

6. To guests arrived in darkest hour
And guide for guideless in strange course

7. If scarcity befalls in barren years
Unquenched by rains or mountain stores

8. There lies true aid, its call resounds
Beyond far sands, no distant shore

9. Reviving those in hiding, armed and poised
Braver than Abu Shibl, timeless lore

10. Swift horses, when untamed they race
Unchecked by calls to turn or halt

11. Stallions pillowed on raiders’ arms
On roads of pillage, plunder exalted

12. Lionesses cower hearing his roar
At every dawn, tremoring assault

13. Principles binding Arab to pact
In hardship or in fortune’s vault

14. To remain in blood-soaked layer
Amid souls’ strife, sterile default

15. The valiant thereby draw from his reserve
Of most splendid Arab stock the exult

16. If straits tighten round his abode
They meet him without morose result

17. By his surging seas, all doors open
No veil obscures them by his will

18. Events afflict me by his deeds
Their concerns eve and dawn me fill

19. If Time itself sought a friend
Its friend would surely be Sakhr, son of ‘Amr