1. Do you know who once dwelled in earnest at landmarks,
Now ruined, once trod by the studious?

2. A place for firewood its people endured,
A hearth like a dusty dove in gloom.

3. With the wind leaving embers smoldering,
And a basin like an ostrich’s nest etched in darkness.

4. You see a mare’s mouth frothing
When she finds the taste of bitterness loathsome.

5. As if the physician lanced an abscess for her
And left a potion, vile and viscous, in the trough.

6. In the vale’s bend, beasts of prey restored themselves,
Gnawing until it was a nest for birds, demolished.

7. Whenever it sent off doves, they shunned it
For a water-spring to ply, lone or in pairs.

8. You see them, when fully sated, as though
Suspended by the gullets, dangling.

9. It coiled into lairs in the wilderness, leaving them
In the rubble of nameless ruins, bleak.

10. When the downpours roused them toward settlements,
They watered bellowing she-camels, huddled prone.

11. Waking the chicks from their stupor as though
Waking the confused from sleep, confused.

12. Folding their feathers over them until they clung together,
Their plumage gleamed then fell away, shattered.

13. They bolted in flocks and scattered in panic as if
A band of captives dreading to be divided.

14. By my life! If I see my goal, I have resolved,
O Dahma, the likes of me shall be forebearing.

15. By a desolate site whose rides are never tethered
When the guide raises his voice, confused and babbling.

16. You see the people mounted on their heads within it
As sleep weighs down even the mediator’s mouth.

17. I traversed the valley of al-Naja, lofty,
With smooth rocks guiding the stumbling camel.

18. Qurayba wagers against me, and ‘Awf ibn Malik,
And Zayd ibn ‘Amr - how prolonged this rancor!

19. By God, you do not blame me out of enmity -
May you be bereft! Nor do you cast aspersions, defamed.

20. We live in truth, no deceit in us,
Not like one who waters the weeping and fragmented.

21. We shall venture, and the formidable peaks are our booty,
And for war we rally the five-day stallion, courageous,

22. And the one baying after stillness - I roused him
With my voice, so he woke revived and vigorous.

23. He came, clothes dripping from the darkness of night,
A heavy cloudburst, pitch-black and murky.

24. On a night when no dog barks to greet its visitor,
When the soaked are roused from their stupor, mumbling -

25. I woke Sa‘d after a sleep for an arriving Tariq,
Whose voice was faint when he bid peace.

26. When the fire illuminated him for us, it shone
On battered armor, forlorn and fragmented.

27. I said to them, “Bring Malik’s provisions,
Though he may have met only milk and sustenance.”

28. He said, “Do not demand it! He only
Snuffled short of the milk-ladened camels.”

29. “I am lawful, pious in truth - I take care
When guests come to put on a cheerful face.”

30. “If their milk falls short of their meat,
We shall milk them with our swords, blood!”

31. “And one who falsely claims enmity with me,
My steeds’ hooves shall meet if I wish!”

32. “For I have endured much for my people and excused them -
So rouse the brave! - and most worthy of ‘Anqa ibn Akhtham.”

33. “If I pardon you, O Nu‘aym, there are others
Besides you whom hidden rancor has turned from me.”