1. May God keep alive those whose swords are unsheathed
Against the allies you see shift from one party to another

2. They remain, never to return except with deep passions
In every throat or heart pierced by the bright sword

3. What can light spears in close combat achieve
Against the heavily armed warrior with his sharp blade?

4. When a man's weapon leaves his hand
He loses honor among a people who have none

5. The slave girls bear their lot
Like the soft moist branch of a banana tree

6. As the howler derives from the goat during battle
By God, how the sword derives from war!

7. But like phantoms of eggs and coffins
They alternate, appearing through separation and veils

8. The gazelle says her omens have returned
Like the darkness of night, or did east become west?

9. The night saw its beauty in the stars, but truly
Saw riders with the spears of the Bani Ka'b

10. And scattered like locust swarms as if they were
Serpents slithering out from their holes

11. Riders of excellent pedigree on thoroughbreds
Vying in glory after the herd had settled

12. Unheeding the threats and sparks from the clouds
Aiming with death and blows from their drinking place

13. A people who forcibly make up for what was missed
If the path was easy, they took the harder one

14. Why did you not peer closely the day the horsemen
Of the despicable sons of Hurquf the dog approached?

15. Nobles grinding the grain of Qais about them
And every millstone that turns, turns upon its pivot

16. I thought the piercing insults from a slanderer
Were like the Bani Shayban pursuing loot

17. And vile error made you stumble blindly
Retreating from it in tumult and alarm

18. Only he who counters it with his schemes
Will meet his fate nearest to fear itself

19. Say to him - may God not prosper his judgment! -
When did the Persian slaves withstand the Arabs?