1. Does 'Āmir's clan each year still take as spoils
From the rich pastures much plunder to haul home?

2. By your life, I do not know, though I question—
Are sisters harsher, or uncles darker?

3. Why does the plump one not make her spokesman rise?
Why is the scion of noble line struck dumb?

4. With a homely woman of good birth he cannot cope
If the tribe scorn her as a worthless fool.

5. And she knows not if the night that's passed for her
Was short, or if the night to come is long.

6. We did not foster Jabal's maid as foundling;
Nor was Thamūd's rocky valley ours to guard.