1. O ignorant one given to blaming others,
Do not threaten me, neither snake with a bite

2. Nor a man prone to disputation and contention.
Leave me be, for he may get a rap for the slow-witted one,

3. A knock on the pate of the disputatious fellow.
Keep away from me, refuge of the hissing adder,

4. I am the son of Anzad, to whom I hurry
When the cooking pots are stirred,

5. To Tameem, and Tameem is my fortress,
I give the enemies a draught of long-chafing wrath,

6. They meet the punishment of burning pain,
I am the son of every honored, high-bred Mus'ab,

7. Exalted despite the hostility of the foe.
I spend freely, I distribute gifts to the enemy with breadcrumbs,

8. Pounding them with nimble, heavy-striking hooves,
All the tall, plundering, audacious warriors,

9. Ramming riders nurtured on ramming,
Who swallow the main body of warriors before the cavalry,

10. When matters are stirred up with intoxication.
And war, hard to contend with, urging on

11. With lance-thrusts, stabbing, and piercing,
And the impact of the stones slung from the sling,

12. We did not desire any numerous host,
Except that we foiled their scheme with poetry,

13. With the foreheads and skulls of the glorious ones,
It refuses and its composition swells up with conceit,

14. You see the newly created conceits slipping off it, unadorned,
When the high-stepping, far-striding she-camels draw away from it,

15. And the pregnant she-camels, heavy with young, turn away,
Pregnant, slowly plodding, dying a feeble death,

16. Verily, the glory of Tameem is lasting glory,
And victory belongs to the strongest,

17. They rise above, rending the enemies with sharp claws
Taking no heed of censure and blame,

18. Nor the enemies' cooking up schemes.
And if the foes' legions, fully armed,

19. Were to unite in numbers and preparation,
Then if you see me today, O mother of determination,

20. Brought close to my slaughter and defeat,
After the loss of my reckless, vain youth,

21. In the shadow of my idle maturity and folly,
Then every excellent or paltry beginning

22. Meets the pigeons of fate, the eagles of destiny,
Like arrows aimed at the fixed target,

23. That one day will smash the boulders of affliction,
When care and blame disobeyed me,

24. I lifted my tent-pegs and the ropes of the tent-cloth
Onto the mountain passes of lofty Julal,

25. Or pitched camp at the smooth plain of Nuz,
How often it passed over the gorge and the crevasse

26. And turned away from the stony ground and the crag,
And the watchman who kept vigil atop the goat-hair tent,

27. And the barren land and the watering-place with little herbage,
Surrounded by a tract of swaying sand,

28. And a descent where horned animals leap:
A herd of mountain goats and gazelles,

29. When the early morning pasturage flows into the plain,
You would think them pieces of clothing of soft leather,

30. Or scraps of a garment or a coat
That a browser of every kind of foliage dons,

31. And travel is to us an unsteady staggering,
I converse with successive nights, distressed and weary,

32. Yet he defied me and came close to provoking me,
Had I no hope in a generous man of judgment,

33. He would pardon you his pardon before your slaughter,
His resolute intention has no deceit,

34. If he resolves on a grave matter,
He distances it from blame and inability,

35. So praise the noble scion of glorious ancestry,
His munificence will pardon you before your ruin.

36. He has a leaning that trembles when moved,
He plunges into hardship for the destitute,

37. When all withhold good, each one stingy,
Then that one is a miser, dejected in calamity,

38. And a beetle walking in mire,
Who has no fear of ruin with that treasure,

39. And everyone dissenting and hoarding,
Whether shaggy-haired or curly-locked,

40. As if he were cast of iron,
Not the cloud's shower reviving the parched land.

41. The eulogist knew you would reward
His eulogy without disgracing him,

42. So I picked from the best of every kind,
The choicest, noblest steeds,

43. And my eulogy, when glory vies,
Will remain and be more enduring than noble steeds.