1. O men who love Ummaymah though she killed me
After glory and the setting of the sun.

2. With incidents that console the lover for love
And troubles that vexed and preoccupied us.

3. And with experiences, the sweetest of which
Was spoken by the tongue, though most evasively.

4. O Ummaymah, have you been told of one made desolate, who wept
For what he felt of love for the excellent?

5. Or did you know that you were gifted with one
Whose love is nobility, though he gives nothing?

6. And you supposed that I was of noble birth,
So I hoped in life for one who fulfils.

7. I kept your company: had you repaid affection
And nature, it had not been of fleeting kind.

8. Year after year, then a third,
I found that like the saying of the false.

9. A promise like flashes of mockery in the sky -
A cloudburst, though to the watcher most delusive.

10. Those were days I concealed in my recollection of you
In our heedlessness and empty boasts,

11. An infatuation that led me to its perils,
A giddiness that imagines for the youth

12. What is not for the wakeful in pretense.
Ummaymah said: "Women promised you,

13. My dear friend and intimates.
So fix us a term, for they decided me

14. To follow messages with messages."
I thought to avoid it, and I said: "They vex me

15. With envy of her, though I can bear my condition."
I knew that if my merit were with her,

16. Their words would not fail of effect.
If they vexed me with envy of her, she would know it -

17. Gracious to them, though they were not heedless.
And I made their appointment a most blessed night,

18. When lover meets beloved, though the jealous is oblivious,
Until, when I came, neither failing

19. What they expected nor in haste,
I came to a session of soft bodies, ripe hips,

20. Deep bellies, perfectly firm.
They smiled, diffusing a cold that reddened their cheeks

21. Like syrup that is neither thick nor diluted.
The meadow of their cheeks bloomed in the summer dusk

22. At the setting of the Pleiades.
A wonder was the delight of the presence of those gentle,

23. Excelled though they were by the excellent.
When we took turns speaking, we lowered our voices

24. After greeting and questioning.
We exchanged discreet words, no quarreling

25. Or recrimination.
They shook my hand with fingers dyed

26. Like the shoots of sweetbrier.
The session and incense were delightful

27. Had your day lasted nightlong.
My heart longed for the wailings of doves -

28. It would not rest for a melancholy tone.
The stars of spring clustered on a side

29. Of fertile growth whose dweller lived well.
Summer stretched over its firmament

30. And the heat wave flooded in a torrent.
The mirage flowed on the dunes as if

31. It were a wave restoring to the coast sands.
Then it came near the water-springs and faded -

32. The crop of summer from the withering bellies.
Till when autumn fell, touching the twisting

33. Necks with its first white frosts,
They drove up all the heavily-laden beasts

34. Like a palace covering both shoulders.
The harsh bone-ridges of their chests are prominent,

35. The lines of their flanks rigid from the burdens.
She-camels kneaded and their prints appeared -

36. Herbage crumpled from a pouring rain.
Until when she had tamed them with firm handling

37. By the skill of her deft palms,
And the breadth of their bodies showed, and their length,

38. Marked by the pattern of their necks,
And she adorned them with all kinds of howdahs, secure,

39. Like the eyelid, neither stiff nor drooping,
With drapes of purple, covered overall

40. With rare thin gauze and pretense.
When she had prepared the finest sight,

41. Without violence or nonchalance,
Above the camels the litters took their place -

42. Ripe fruits of gentle birth, no vanity,
Of every swaying one the veil hangs

43. From her waist, though the waist is no disgrace,
A scented east wind blows from its pocket -

44. Fragrance, though it barely reaches the lover,
Unless cared for, and then a saying, and after it

45. A successor, not her image to be spurned.
This, and better, is praise for one praised

46. For numbered and additional virtues,
For the faithful youth who keeps his word,

47. Arbiter of rule and decisive justice,
Who wreaks punishment on those who break the staff

48. The day they weaken and their gleam grows dim,
Who defends the protected, attacking suddenly,

49. Denying sleep to the shameless babbler.
O Ma'n son of the generous, who trod the pebbles

50. Save for prophethood, then most noble ancestors,
Whose war is most feared when battle grew hot,

51. Most patient for the truth that befalls,
Fiercest in might, most faithful in allies

52. Bringing advantage, farthest in aspirations.
How many hateful prince of little worth

53. Or pretentious, complaining of arms,
Does harm with capturing steeds, hanging up

54. Usefulness, which you sought in the thick of battle!
You opened a window piercing with a rusty

55. Foam of one resisting, and another asking.
You hit the Yemeni with a white-bladed sword

56. That crushed the wings of those who were excessive.
You trampled the armies of every land possessed

57. By owners of ignorance with the trampling of one heavy laden,
And the refugee who feared the enemy nearby

58. While wrongdoing ended its roads in you.
You secured his fear, and on an evil day

59. Eased his worry - how many could say it!
The delegations from all the tribes,

60. Those whose wealth was shaken, and the inert,
Sought the dew of Ma'n, so most laden riders

61. Succeeded through your bounty, and caravans blessed.
The sea is not vaster than the Euphrates in flood

62. Between rivulets and gatherings.
Your boon is more beneficial than your dew to the transgressor

63. Whose distinction withered the indigent man.
Were it not for hoping in you, I would not have traveled

64. The expanse of Iraq with young men and riders.
How much did they cut across to you from a land

65. Whose guide through the plain is the ignorant!
Joined are the stages joined, their regions

66. Linked by howdahs succeeding.
A time of disasters they crossed continuously

67. And sank into sorrow, frail.
O son of the lofty Ghassan whose heights for them

68. Were noble, with pillars and columns!
Their foundations were firm, their branches flourishing -

69. Excellence preventing indulgence in the harvest.
May your sacrifice bring wretchedness to him who envies me

70. And joy to him who blames you though hopeful!
For declining favor, in the view of one gazing

71. At your dew; you are truly of high merit.
Make wretched my father's envier and gladden

72. The giver of false blame though expectant of you.
You are of aid and additional virtues.