1. They exalt themselves, let them know who truly exalts
Thus, thus or ask no more a question already answered

2. Nobility charges the stars with its lightning
And glory convulses mountains

3. While our enemies' state is grandiose
And the state sword, son of swords, grander

4. Whenever they hastened the warner’s journey
His steeds hastened all the more

5. There came to them miracles of earth
Bearing naught but iron and heroes

6. Veiled in every hue has fancy woven
Raiment and glory upon them

7. Their chests swore and the loftiest peaks
To plunge into perils for him

8. And press on where neither lance finds range
Nor steed an open field

9. I blame not the King of Rome though
His hopes proved most improbable

10. Anxiety shook him amid his mind’s ears
When that who sought heaven got it

11. Whenever he tried seizing it, it widened
Encompassing his brow beneath a helm

12. He rallies Rome, the Saqāliba and Bulghār
While the appointed times rally in it

13. And meet them at the crimson canal
As yearning meets the watering-places

14. They set out to raze its wall, but built it
And came to undermine it, so it heightened

15. They ignited the stratagems of war until
Leaving them upon them a bane

16. Oft comes to you a thing whose happening
You loathe, yet bless its consequences

17. And a blow you warded off only to hurl
Back at the archers from you their arrows

18. They cut the routes to ambush envoys
But cutting them off became their sending

19. They are the deep abundant with sails
Save that at your deep it grew still

20. They marched not to fight you, but
‘Twas the battle that sufficed you against battle

21. And what severed the heads with double-edged blades
Severed aspirations with your hands

22. While their famed unwavering stand
Taught unwavering ones your solemn stride

23. They came down to death-beds they knew
Bemoaning uncles and in-laws

24. The winds conveying amidst them dishevelled hair
And strewing over them limbs

25. Warning the body to present itself
And showing it for each member an instance

26. They espied the stab in hearts as a foretaste
Ere they glimpsed the shadowed lances

27. And when horsemen assay your stabbing,
They glimpse the lances’ arms outstretched for miles

28. Panic spreads its right to the right
So they flee while to the left, the left

29. Panic shakes hands that know not
Whether swords they carried or shackles

30. And faces it frightened with a face
That left them its beauty and charm

31. While the evident facts engage fancy
In decline and inclination in transition

32. And if the craven possessed a land
He sought the stab of the lone duel

33. They swore they never saw you but at heart
Though eyes oft seduced men

34. What eye gazed on you and met
You while what eyelash delighted in you and swerved?

35. No damned fool doubts your taking the troops
Can he marshal the squadrons then?

36. No use for him who plants ropes in earth
Hoping to ensnare the new crescent

37. Beneath her who is upon the trail, hillside and river
Jumbled lie rock-slide and ruin

38. Fate and kings she dominated
And built in fate’s dimple in seclusion

39. So she walked the walk of the coy bride
And leaned upon time as her darling

40. While he guarded her from each roving outcast—
Time’s tyranny and towering columns

41. She’s a doe who knows sacrilege from sanction
For she wasted the lawful blood

42. On a bleak and ominous Thursday
That made away with souls and wealth

43. The souls of the amiable are but predators
Jousting openly and furtively

44. Who could seek something by wrest
And seizure without asking?