1. You blame me for my usual butchery,
And he who knows not a thing’s worth finds fault with it.

2. Had you mastered even a little of the art,
You would not have substituted veil for slaughter.

3. By your life, were you to look on me there
With a horde of Kalb's sons around me, bandits,

4. You would be confounded and say "This is
Hazebr, who makes desolation the wilds."

5. And did you know my power and experience,
You would know why savagery bears the disasters.

6. The she-wolf Kallab bore witness for us
That glory has mourned the closing of its door.

7. When Al-Walid is born to us as a suckling babe,
You see in his face the marks of the noble.

8. And when he reaches weaning, that is a lion,
Hazebr, breaker of battle, biting.

9. When we make war on a tribe,
You see death has shot its arrows.

10. So we wrought havoc among the Banu 'Anaza,
Spreading terror and awe among them.

11. We destroyed their graybeards, and when we conquered
A lad with down on his cheek, we had no mercy for his youth.

12. Had it not been for us, death would not have found
A way to its choice beloved ones.

13. Did a camel ever appear that we did not
Attack with a raid that tore its veil?

14. We slapped their heads with our swords until
We made them flee, tearing their garments.

15. Nor did we cease from the Thawri until
We mixed shed blood with their spittle.

16. When men's spears fail one day
And ours prevail mightily,

17. We shed blood without shame,
And he whom we kill, we fear no vengeance for him.

18. One of us goes out against a thousand
And destroys them - that is nothing strange.

19. He who trusts to be safe from us
Will return to our mercy.

20. Glory is built by daring, not raising buildings,
And the sword's edge, not the pen's, is serious.

21. We inherited glory, clan after clan,
So its nobility cannot be attributed to other than us.

22. And we were preeminent in purity in every art,
So none but us aspired to its goals.

23. O father of excellence, the vizier, hear my call!
For your superiority guarantees response.

24. And hearken to the complaint of one grateful
For your reproach of his butchery.

25. Fate exiled him unjustly to the wilds,
And extended its claw to grasp him.

26. By your life, I did not abandon poetry
Until I saw meanness extend its flame,

27. And until, yearning for an intimate friend,
I visited him, and he showed gloom and moroseness,

28. Thinking I visited in order to gain something,
So he was aloof and closed his door tight.

29. But he of high resolves turns aside
From all whose company he would avoid.

30. Kind companionship has hidden its face,
And villainy has lowered over a noble intention its veil.

31. Generosity has become a word without meaning,
And we vainly frequent its door.

32. Whenever it is said "This is a sea of generosity"
I go and find only a mirage.

33. Poetry was the best adornment
For people of immorality and foolery.

34. So its sons became the lowest of men
In people's eyes, viler than dogs.

35. If you wish to gain standing, compose
Some poetry and seek reward through it.

36. When the people of the earth turned
To wolves, I turned to hunting wolves.

37. He whom I could not make a client with verse
Because meanness was his nature in poetry,

38. I set for his villainy a cunning trap
And I crouched to leap on him from the butcher's stall.

39. There is no shame on the needy man
To employ his cunning in escaping.

40. A talent whose cultivation I devoted myself to
Makes the difficulties of poetic speech easy for me.

41. The poem dances to me in wonder
Whenever I spur someone with its meter.

42. Is there anyone I surpass in it
Or whose arrow flies straighter than mine?

43. Whenever I praise one of mighty glory
Time's hand cannot destroy his glory.

44. Had I been a man moved by blame
I would have poured upon the slanderer his chastisement.

45. But I blamed slander until
Its garments were cast off from me in disdain.

46. By the Lord of poetry! Whoever does not despair
And whose flesh is torn will have no fear.

47. When you awakened me and summoned me
To seek the path - difficult to turn into -

48. You have most right to my seeking
And are most deserving that I knock on your door.

49. So make what I complain of a book,
And make your generosity its answer.

50. Lest it be burdensome to you, it may be said
"Yahya has filled his purse."

51. With bounties like the abundant sea
And flood pouring from drops of clouds -

52. The call of one drowning and desperate
Appeals to you, hopeful that you will answer.

53. When the great are chosen to reveal glory
And attain what is sought, you would be the choice.

54. From you went forth the arrow that hit its mark before,
And through you he hopes for the aim he desires.

55. The horizon of my fortune is darkened by events,
So dispel for me its clouds with your sun.

56. Narrow is what fate has folded,
So expand what your side has spread.

57. Join the tie of refinement to hopes,
For its rein is gentler than kinship.

58. We are bound by noble lineage,
So the poetry's gate is the writing's gate.

59. I wrote it when my body was sickly,
And he who is ill may keep to what is right.

60. The halt of Judgment Day, poetry's agony, is hard,
So make its reckoning easy when it halts.

61. Overlook it, for it is no falcon
That drags its prey wherever it sees a perch.