1. The most eloquent spoke to me with words that enthralled,
So I whispered gently, taking heed,

2. She appeared in the morning like the mother of lions,
And every impassioned one goaded me on.

3. He pushed me and did not know what was in my skin
Of asceticism’s fervor and renouncing frivolity.

4. And from that the mother of coquetry was amazed
When she saw me content with steadfastness.

5. I do not shy away sitting amongst the squatted,
Like a pegged partridge between the tent pegs,

6. Its feathers had fallen off before moulting,
Scorched by the midday heat and an intense fire.

7. My joints creak with the bending of twigs,
Confused fancies and accustomed to long vigils,

8. And a night spurred on by a scorching day
To the young man’s trysting place with hunting nets.

9. After songs and lyrical chant,
May the days of my youth leading the vanguard not be far removed,

10. Nor the companionship of generous, hospitable men,
And the breath of the traces of encampments now departed,

11. And our glances that kill before piercing
Were no less than the Yemeni mail-clad warrior’s roasting,

12. Hoping, even if he enters every pass,
To weave my weaving, the active, nimble one.

13. Rather it is a land whose horizons lie in regions diverse,
With loud, ululating battle cries,

14. Fearful to behold, bones terrifying,
Where lively livers recoiled,

15. High-humped, towering climbs,
Interwoven fetlocks, the freed, unbroken steeds,

16. Pacing evenly, crooked-limbed,
When we raced them briskly in a group,

17. With the water skins that change settlements,
They shrank to the shrinking of ostriches roused.

18. After dusk, unencumbered, lightly-loaded,
Swooping down withdin in the crumbling darkness,

19. While the night, filled with lions, cast about,
And their hands with tent poles fending off.

20. Between the hills its breadth allows galloping,
The starved beasts of the steppe split open.

21. About shapely sand grouse in knots,
Nay, but the scholar and summoner knew

22. That I in my bliss – and it is the best of fortunes –
Am friendly in the barren valley, shunning towns,

23. And that I consort with the common folk,
Mingling with them immoderately I exaggerate,

24. And a people not born to fortunes –
Prudence restrained me from them to avoid harm

25. With patience, though they are not our equals,
And if they but witness my position they would acquiesce to agreement

26. And a poet not guided to proper direction
Until he strayed into the thickets of reaping,

27. And it squeezed his throat after the quarrel
The reproach of the feeble man, interwoven with malice,

28. Began to try to rise with slanderers,
Travelling his caravan with a known destination,

29. Increasing his distance from the hands that would restrain,
And from the envious and hostile louts

30. Who never stopped exaggerating in lies and fabrications
Until we destroyed his territory with invocations.

31. So O questioner about the people of the valley,
If you are blind take heed from witnesses

32. Who will tell you what an enumerator missed.
Verily Tameem was an eminent tribe of ‘Ad

33. With many noble men, beyond a counter's counting,
So people in their anger and hatred

34. Against Tameem and the region’s blazing heat
Fell ill and died by the malignant stars.

35. And if you blame my jesting with verse,
While Qais is merciful in mighty verse,

36. Deviations fall short of it.
We are more lasting than mountains solid,

37. Rising above the leveling vicissitudes of fate,
With breasts as strong as coat of mail, supporting pillars,

38. For us and ancestors, great men of great deeds,
Saved them from the schemes of every schemer

39. And unjust man, though eminent and severe,
The goring of Oud’s sons is the death of tyrants.

40. We have troops, excellent for charges,
With lances at Marw they struck the heads of rivals.

41. So we are masters even of defiant slaves,
No present or absent escapes

42. Except we subdue him with dominating rule
That hurls the adversary like Iblees and the refractory

43. And if clashing with armor restrains
Our arms and the skulls of turbaned heads,

44. We disobey with foreign swords every sharp cutting blade,
When drawn from their still sheathed repose.

45. They split with their edges the firmament's expanse,
We suffice Quraish whoever strove to make mischief

46. Of every hated sowers of dissent,
And atheist who has mixed matters of unbelief,

47. And we cure the pounding of heads and the disease of tremors
With a wave of our hands, the necklaces' threads,

48. We send the heads of the arrogant, aggressive ones
From each people before the coins are minted

49. To the Commander of the Faithful, rightly guided,
An honor from God and praise of the praised,

50. That one, even if the howling people are rallied,
Silences the bells of bleating flocks,

51. The loud Al-Dayghamiyyat, the booming,
I am inspired despite the allurements of sport and amusement

52. My roar and the tumult of the crashing, rumbling din,
And the echo of the brittle bowl that rebounds

53. Silenced for me the bells of every babbler
Who frightened away a bustard before shooting,

54. Spreading its wings over its chicks,
As if a torrent poured after damming

55. Over my beloved's brow, frowning with pain,
In a shock of hair like gall, amid plaits,

56. Or the curling lock between curly plaits,
Unruly against the nose bands and halter ropes,

57. Disheveled soft hair upon soft skin,
As if it was dyed with saffron or the yellow dye,

58. Pulling out locks with a sharpened incisor,
And twisted strands like a wine skin’s twist,

59. Hating the pounding of the two forehead veins,
In his head tossed hair of youth,

60. Shaking the earth with might and moaning,
So they are victims of a charging knight,

61. Who promises or takes before appointed time,
A deadly fate that scatters the heads of rivals

62. From bones into the innermost soul,
While peers of warriors, heavily armed, rejoice

63. At the thick staff of the strong, towering man,
Who casts to hands invincible in combat,

64. And looming figures like massive mountains,