1. Except for my freedom, the doves did not stir it,
Nor did the landmarks attempt it except for my tears.

2. My passions refused to let my hopes sleep
A day from glory or let resolves sleep.

3. And never will the stars attain their lowest hopes,
And their likes feared its war and the peace-makers.

4. I ask this life what its grudge against me is,
And wherein is it unjust to me.

5. Shall I meet humiliation in it and sword unsheathed,
And ride in it ruin and sleep eyes awake?

6. And whoever deemed the cleavage of breasts and his sword fair,
And his ambition in his life - he is the ruler.

7. I wondered - and from where did I wonder my wonder -
Is it from the injustices of days that one who is wise wonders?

8. Concerns have prevented him from every resting place,
So he does not sleep the night and people are sleeping.

9. And I have not ceased to host the source of worries,
When one of them departs, another settles in.

10. Until I left worry humiliated, regretting,
Fearing what spears intend.

11. And begging its allies while sitting still,
To me, though I did not feel it, and it standing.

12. It bites its palms, unable to reach me,
And it does not hurt me if the dust cracks insistently.

13. And it asks about me while being a serious knower of me,
Can an unexpected calamity be denied by the accumulative?

14. I have risen above the lofty heights which
The glories of efforts and presumptions fall short of.

15. When I call in the distant parts, the roaring lions hasten
To respond to me in multitudes.

16. My people do not implore allies for an affliction
From fate, except while the swords are erect.

17. Their drink in war is what the spears rain,
And their food is what the sharp blades harvest.

18. Death saw its spirit and delight in them
One evening the erect palms took flight.

19. And nightfall feared their pace, so it is as though
Its planets over it are amulets.

20. They tied the shy coursers, so they are plunging steeds,
And they tore open the earth’s backs, so it has hillocks.

21. Flashes flew among the bows beneath them,
So how would it be if the bows did not restrain them?

22. Their funerals are for valor, the cup, and dew,
And their weddings are funerals for the armored.

23. Those are my people and the raiding palms,
And these are my horses and the blackened faces.

24. With them I pelt the people of mountains, so they did not know
Were cavalry pelting them with spears or ladders?

25. And inevitably there will be a fearful day in the east
When the skulls of India collide with the skulls.

26. My resolve will collapse if I do not visit Babylon’s land
One day when the lions visit the tall skull-towers.

27. A band frightened me with death,
I ask about them what seasoned ones say.

28. The line of poetry denies them except their backs,
And the routs will recognize them on the day of clashing.

29. And is it not but death, O fetcher of the staff,
I compete with its hated one and bustle about?

30. And you are like the sweet stalk of sugarcane,
And there is no patience from it when injustices are refused.

31. I see fate giving each incapable one his fortune,
And depriving those in whom virtues are cherished.

32. So if days are prolonged, be angry with a raid
Which will, afterward, humiliate the severed noses.