1. The youth is not impressed by merit,
For it is a promise of reward.

2. I say I have surpassed in glory,
The houses of Sa'id and Sa'ad.

3. So there is none above me, nor like me,
Neither before me, nor after me.

4. His father endowed him with my enmity,
With his death, as smallpox is contagious.

5. It destroyed the horsemen of every generation,
Among the eminent and the curly-haired.

6. And events have not bent a refuge,
Like Bistaam and the son of Ma'adi.

7. O Zainab adorned and O Da'ad,
How many a Zainab and Da'ad have passed.

8. So praise be to God, my goodness has diminished,
And my kin have become like strangers to me.

9. And death has appeared to me,
Lightening that heralds thunder.