1. The air has relented from Salma, so its traces faded away
Thus Dhat Safa became a desert, its hillocks and meadows

2. So what’s between dogs and a guardian became desolate
The night sings to it along with its howling

3. Nothing left but two lovers signaling as if they were
Stars that appeared but their clouds have concealed them

4. With a lion that drags droplets in its meadows
Morning dews have quenched it so its bounty is lasting

5. When I say its downpour has subsided, the wind comes to it
From a swift well whose buckets are overflowing

6. So it continues to pour in the valley of Khabt and Ar’ar
Until the highlands settled and the peaks bowed down

7. With pouring water until the tips of sand dunes bent over
Submissive, their lofty heads bowed down

8. With a ship anchored, drawing near as if
It cleaves the salt plain, never swerving from its course

9. When the southern winds thrust into it, it confronts them
With the sterns of nomads, clashing with the waves crashing into them

10. May God water Salma’s abode with a quenching rain
For Salma’s malady cannot be cured with any medicine

11. Had Salma confided in me a secret, I would have kept it
For who else bears secrets but the tight-lipped one?

12. Of Arab girls, the Bedouin ones, not those
Whose fever is Damascus, though it whets their zeal

13. To you, Abu Marwan, riders have set out
Bringing you the prime of nimble she-camels

14. They trotted and headed for summer, though it brings
An affliction that alters the complexion of men

15. To you from the lowlands, until their bare bellies
Crowded over a little flesh with barely any fat

16. Hoping for your generosity, he who relies on you
Attains the best of what had been denied to him

17. So you are the one the horsemen hope for his departure
When the grey year folds its stars and constellations

18. My soul desires Iraq and its people
And there are loved ones among them, intimate and dear

19. When my she-camel reaches Bishr ibn Marwan
My soul will forget its fear and worries will fall asleep

20. A leader who guides the horses as if they are
The twisted sand dunes, upright and straight

21. To war until war surrenders, after
Struggling in its death-throes, feverish and enraged

22. Your father tried to win the hearts of Quraysh
For you, their noblest sons, their quintessence

23. He refused for the crown to be on any other head
For the formidable hunting of your mighty father

24. Through you, God regained the desert after
The rebels roamed it, their mischief swirling

25. You are the hoped for, the God-fearing one, when
Fear looms regarding such monumental affairs

26. And you, regarding others—when they pretend to be like them—
Are the vanquisher, cutting pretenders down to size

27. So do not feed my flesh to enemies, it is
Quickly prone to plot against you and slander

28. By my life, if Kulaib continues his madness
Deceived by his foolish goal, his band gone astray

29. They have sealed off from me a twisted canal
When the roar of canals and misfortunes grow loud

30. I am no coward if the contest is prolonged
Nor am I biased against an unblemished companion

31. I stand firmly, facing every opponent and none can match me
Not Jarir, nor the patron of Jarir can confront me

32. Does the dog’s son insult me because Darim’s abode
Overflowed upon him as a torrent he cannot stem?

33. The clan of Darim is an impregnable spring, while you
Are the mongrels, your ugly faces cannot be masked

34. Were it not for fear of gossiping winds, I would have pelted him
With words that pierce honor, indelible stigmata

35. The son of Yarbu taunts my mother, but she is protected
No sincere insult of her has ever slipped out from me

36. They could not find for him an Arab mother
No midwife ever circumcised the ugly thing

37. It is known his line descends from Maragha, for it
Remains notorious for abasement, a cooling breeze

38. They exposed his female donkeys, though they were
Once too proud, decked out in donkeys’ saddlebags

39. I found Kulaib pestering all the people
While you, Kulaib, are the most wretched of them