1. Stand with me where the ruins lie,
Where the passing caravans mourn.

2. Ask me not for steadfastness now
When fate's onslaughts make me so forlorn.

3. My heart played with aspirations
To be mangled by the claws of wolves or lions.

4. Like a wanton I roam 'mid the ruins
Yet am neither joyful nor sad in my sighing.

5. As though I - when their camel litters departed -
Battled the waves of a surging, foam-flecked sea.

6. My patience on the day our tribe migrated,
Riding their mares swift as leaping gazelles!

7. My heart wished they were but passing mirages
Not urged on by reality's goading stick.

8. When asked of love, I denied my passion,
So many victims of love met disaster in following it.

9. Yet I swore to shun love and its evil -
A vain oath which brought me only shame!

10. O kinsmen, do not hope to catch up with us;
Too far between are the well-watered campsites and the parched.

11. We left you though we were not pursued,
Spurring on our steeds with no rest or slackening of pace.

12. You continue showering the clouds with your arrows
As we race across the burning sands.

13. Your lack of faith decided your defeat,
Your natures are malicious, evil and base.

14. Yours are the marks of abject humiliation
As though you are women wailing their dead.

15. You claimed superiority over us,
Yet that was through weak, ineffective causes.

16. We were not harmed by having no wealth,
While many a brimming crock is poured into the earth of a desolate grave!

17. You showed no kindness when you had the chance,
While we acted with grace when opportunity knocked.

18. Naught made you arrogant save heedlessness of us,
Though among you we found a wrong-doing tyrant.

19. I swear by the House around which
Walked the pure-blooded, noble ancients!

20. And the camel slain at Mina the day they slew it,
Led to the hands of wrong-doers lying in wait there!

21. Their covenant's knights imagined they had
Dyed their blades crimson with its blood.

22. Many who rested amongst us lightly clad
Slept all night curled in the robes the valiant left behind.

23. We surpass you in spreading glory's fragrance,
And towering high above you on the lofty peaks.

24. We are the noble ancestors whose worth you recognize,
And with whom glory resides, passed from heir to heir.

25. Their open-handedness encompassed all mankind,
While hunger's pangs they suffered with resolve and care.

26. They bequeathed their great deeds to their descendants,
While from your forebears, naught have you to inherit.

27. They kept their children's honor free of shame,
While your past is one of infamous, sordid tales.

28. After drought, we are the best who can provide relief,
After calamities, we are the best who can give aid.

29. Our blades strike truer into kidneys than yours,
As we thrust with sharp swords wielded by warriors brave.

30. Our swords shower heads with blows in the fray
And hurl at the rabble insults strong and grave.

31. Ours are the heavens' downpour, hailstones and rain,
While only a drizzle falls upon you from the passing clouds.

32. No heads amongst us bow in shame or disgrace,
Which vile rumors circulating might expose.

33. How can you break faith while ours remains unwavering?
Never have you known us to go back on our word!

34. Do not dim our brilliance with your darkness,
Or equate our eagles with your crows!

35. Take my words today as the roar of a raging lion,
The groan of an aggrieved soul, a camel's rasping breath.