1. O Bakr, you have rebuked early, leaving lasting embers in the heart,
While time takes its revenge on the cunning trickster,

2. Letting the vicissitudes of fate and time run their course,
For time in its ups and downs is bound by causation,

3. The repetition of nights is enough of a deterrent,
And every moment seeks to uncover treasures,

4. You saw me not as one traveling afar,
Battling the biting winds and scorching heat,

5. Disheveled, a Najdi wandering and bewildered,
Turned away from pleasures and diversions, disinterested,

6. With the hair on my forehead unkempt,
Besides some tufts like the remnants of ruins,

7. Repelled, as old age reveals its ugliness,
The gates of Umm al-Baww have become barred,

8. Since she saw the first signs of a beard on my face,
The ravens atop my head took fright and fled away,

9. When gray hair descended, becoming prevalent,
God does not keep the flying raven far away,

10. So if you see, wherever it once nested,
Some newly sprung shoots of old age sprouting,

11. It has shown me gluttony and harm,
And lack of generosity, while being fruitful,

12. With a soft complexion and raining body,
When my bow's strength brooked no resistance,

13. And it envisioned for me in youth armed forces,
My demon self that would strike the mighty lions down,

14. I was almost ignorant enough to love the migrant,
In an era in which we lived most tumultuously,

15. And we recalled the mighty favors,
And a boyhood that did not let us forget the first steps.

16. It was a time of most intimate and enchanting company,
An upright gathering and enrapturing company,

17. If only the attainment of the redolent drink were obligatory,
And modesty made them avoid the forgiver,

18. Would that the days of youth were revolving,
And the wares of youth were sold by the merchant,

19. We would give him a dinar before he could haggle,
To buy back flourishing youth from the auctioneer,

20. That polishes and removes the tarnish,
And a land whose leader becomes confused,

21. From a five-handed blow that rouses the inert,
When its flags don the veils,

22. With a single swoop its leaders lost their wits,
Sloughing off and donning shrouds,

23. While avoiding a kneeler and walker,
Head down, though he may raise up the lowly,

24. They are covering the land and the surfaces,
Waves of mirages and a rolling sea,

25. As the blazing sun intensifies its raging heat,
Charging with arrows flung fiercely,

26. You can see it from the kindling of its embers
Drawing the deepest bog into its heat,

27. And into the hollows of the burnt-out dunes,
I tasked them with gifts of gold coins

28. That shake off the nation's filth and the trains' excrement,
The shaking of an ostrich scattering its plumage far and wide,

29. Coming humbly to them like the buzzing of flies,
As skill builds up bricks, layer by layer,

30. A secret he constructed brick by brick,
I spread out the saddlecloth threadbare

31. Capriciously becoming pregnant or barren,
As if, together with the howdah, arousing the fleer,

32. A widow from a fine woven garment, covering the haughty,
Soliciting the scattering of seeds and drunken,

33. Even if the tent stakes battered and bruised the thumb bones,
From the hardness of a bow or the pain of elbows,

34. And the hurling of pebbles from its violent shaking,
And from the deserts by its sorcerous hands,

35. A barrenness that makes faraway places seem near,
You can see in its Najdi valleys the low sand dunes,

36. And the groves and thickets of trees,
And if we transcended wilderness, empty and vacant,

37. Once settled, it would become populated,
With flames that penetrate the deep darkness,

38. Serving the passage of ships and crossings,
Stirring up activity fleetingly,

39. Pursuing the people until the furthest reaches,
From Syria and the yellow fortresses,

40. Rather, I rode the risky vessel,
Looking for a protected sanctuary and pilgrimage,

41. A caliph we can cast the undesirables at,
Or a king who does not deny the pulpits,

42. So O angry one, if you wish to dispute,
Ask the towering camel necks and humps,

43. About enmity, fraud, and overt antagonism,
While the weak and oppressed are cast down in humiliation,

44. It will inform you, if you perceive a discerning glance,
That we straighten the twisted and crooked,

45. With blows that crush even the uncrushable,
Vanquishing and felling a rare head,

46. And with curses we silence the grumblers,
So bring before us one to be refuted or debate, a poet,

47. If you are truly observing us,
For we have seen the flaws and disgraces,

48. Suffering vilification and quick reprisal,
When evil dons its finery,

49. And the oath-breaker and forgiver,
The Meccan and the Maghrebi and the veil-makers,

50. And the cavalry that bites the gaping throat,
God has made them behind an impregnable wall,

51. To oppress the sinners, an overwhelming sovereign,
With excellent safekeeping that protects the sanctuaries,

52. A pillar of strength from us and a crashing torrent,
Warning, making clear his great affairs,

53. A shining lantern whose light never wanes,
And if we desire a people's glory erased,

54. We have geared for the foes dread and rancor,
We named them angrily, with lasting, festering hatred,

55. And the ferocity of proud glory, perilous to rival,
With which we subdue the potent heroes,

56. Even if the lions attacked with fury,
They would meet the grip of violent youth in conflict,

57. When the bowstrings were taut and throats pinched,
We flung them into chilling graves,

58. As if they were loathsome female corpses,
Or the severed horns of a wretched beast,

59. When crouching to sharpen his elbows,
The joints of necks and humps,

60. A blow in response to what befell him, fruitlessly,
With slaps that resemble butcher knives,

61. They tasted from it a bloody and sullied battle,
As if it were injuries, rocks, and blazing embers,

62. And the violent swaying of one mounted on a stretcher,
And jolts that break the broken ones,

63. While the lions dread its impact, muted,
Fearing its onslaughts and sudden calamities,

64. They have tasted from it combat without respite,
A roaring agitated by outrage and humps,

65. When intending to gore or trample,
It flung the fierce lions into slaughterhouses,

66. There occurred slaughter along with maiming of the barren,
From the length of what it dragged around,

67. But I have sworn an oath and warning,
While my knowledge informs the well-informed,

68. I have stayed up nightly thinking of you,
By Him who reveals secrets,

69. From where terse meaning conceals the meanings,
Of the hidden and the manifest,

70. It was not my abandonment to become a migrant,
A migrant, since I never visited as one migrating,

71. Except for recurring chills that afflict the visitor,
How can I forget a suitor and refuser

72. Of your kinship with us and a commander ordaining
The Sunna of justice and a victorious sword,

73. For God, I follow His religion as a supporter,
And for the Commander of the Faithful, I prefer,

74. Over the nature of natures, chaste,
Saved in conduct upon moral ways,

75. Truthful, pious, and modestly veiled,
And a forbearance that spared him tribulations,

76. And if you pull the knot tightly, coercively,
You will not find in his covenant one who betrays,

77. And if he sees the bare-faced unbelief of a disbeliever,
An unjust arbiter unaware of insights,

78. One whose transgression permits transgressions,
Misleading one who has strayed from the path, lost,

79. Into feared misfortunes that loss incurrs,
And a concealer who observes the circles,

80. God poured upon him a striking falcon,
And defeat that hangs the defeated,

81. Shutting in the passages and crossings,
Or a rotating prison where he ended up fallen,

82. His transgression humbled, in disgrace,
With shackles on his legs, his garment dragged,

83. When he complains of pain in his ravaged throat,
They tightened the nails upon his fingertips,

84. There he complains, anguished or patient,
And if he saw an opponent disputing in truth,

85. Crooked, unaware of the rights of the Creator,
Delighting in wrong, leaving none untouched,

86. And if he intended to ride the lame mounts,
The testicles might meet the blow,

87. And the command of the righteous, vanquisher,
The resolved decision of one whose steps never faltered,

88. Comes with eased affairs facilely,
And if he saw a stricken or afflicted one,

89. He blamed him with lies and baseless claims,
The enemies tasted from him stabbing swords,

90. Most furious, with lasting, festering hatred,
When the cooking boiled over, fiercely bubbling,

91. He cured the honor's wound with spreading harm,
With oil, burning and flaming embers,

92. While the blaze heals mangy camels,
After friction that scrapes away the scales,

93. When he saw the injustices and schemes,
Watering bitter afflictions and simmering angers,

94. He bridled the weaving of fabrics and stoked the fires,
A Lord sufficed to restrain wrongs and immoralities,

95. He did not cease until binding the relations,
Brandishing the enemies a flashing blade,

96. You see him casting them down into misfortunes,
Either perishing or plummeting from the high places,

97. And if he commanded binding the elite
Around the neck of an obstinate criminal,

98. Blinder than a dog or chaser,
He twisted him or pulled his pegs,

99. The tent rope coiled, swirling,
And if the fallen one collapsed into a wadi,

100. That faltering weakling did not meet him,
Punishing in his essence or forgiving,

101. You will find for him in each day a besieger,
A duty from truth and issuing justice,

102. And the order of greatness gathering people,
When his days manifest their glories,

103. The son of Abdullah extended splendidly
To the lofty heights, luminously shining,

104. Like the dawn, brighter and more radiant,
You are a man who builds enduring glory,

105. The noblest of nobles and the last of them,
The finest of the fine and the most bountiful,

106. And the most generous, first and last,
When they traced fathers and relatives,

107. In an honored lineage and abundant ancestry,
And you surpassed Qais with prolific increase,

108. The length of pillars and firm-rooted continuity,
And the torrent with rushing spillways,

109. They risked glory, while you remained victorious,
You became thanking God abundantly,

110. The scale of justice and an aware guide,
Recognizing norms, denying the deniable,

111. When matters confused even the greatest,
With puzzling issues that invalidate the claims,

112. Begetting or pollinating proliferating harm,
Or yielding on the inauspicious day of the deceiver,

113. You roused, undertaking them boldly,
And if the timbers of lofty trees writhed,

114. A sublime mark raising the sights,
Gleaning wisely from his words and preferring,

115. And of God's Book, remembering the reminder,
Compiling meanings and apportioning them,

116. Or a rescue - you were the brave, supportive pillar,
Whose foundation is stirred by reflections,

117. When the bastard brings back the Byzantines,
In the belly of one vicious and clawed,

118. Relinquishing what his veins fancy,
And when good tidings of gladness come to pass,

119. As the steeds blanket the racecourses,
And the enemy lightens the enraged burden,

120. You granted from it lasting rain,
Pardoning while you subjugated the ruinous,

121. After being mired in what drowns settlements,
Sheltering the kindling of its smoking embers,

122. But I have sworn an oath and warning,
While my knowledge informs the well-informed,

123. You saw flaws and dishonor,
Suffering vituperation and quick reprisal,

124. From us when evil adorns its fineries,
And oath-breaker and forgiver,

125. And the Meccan and Maghrebi and veil-makers,
And the cavalry that bite the gaping throat,

126. God has made them behind an impregnable wall,
To oppress the sinners, an overwhelming sovereign.