1. The dwellings of Li’b have been abandoned even by livestock,
Except when a journey brings travelers close.

2. The pools retain just a little water until
They shrink to a carpet of ground by the rain distressed.

3. On every bend of the two hillsides a night camping ground with
Scraping tent pegs, when the saddlebags were taken down and spread.

4. Long they were vexed, and now are given up to diversion,
While their neighbors sink ever deeper into foolishness.

5. O you who turned away from us wrongfully and aggressed,
Unknown to us your character in early days.

6. Except for their bones, long exposed to the weather, they seem
Like cranes, their whiteness covered by the dust storm's cloak.

7. When the clan mounts its striped camel stallions, not mares are there,
Nor gray: their beasts are wethers, not females in foal.

8. True-bred she-camels that seem by exhaustion emaciated
As though, by poverty and hunger, captives they had become.

9. From them peer eyes like frightened wild cows, green and wet,
As if the sowing seeds were sprouting in their sockets.

10. Locusts have eaten away their high breeding while
Their struts and rods of acacia wood still survive intact.

11. They miscarried, that not a purebred filly from any
Womb of theirs came, whose pedigree was not obscured.

12. Rough-haired she-camels with frayed halter ropes, bodies wasted,
Nothing left but skin with bones after their prime fat had gone.

13. When the black one girds on the loincloth and straightens
His saddle cloths, and the assembly is ringed around the emaciated.

14. He turns from the questioners and fears to utter
The words of the caller, "I am fearful and cautious."

15. "I fight a soul that may choose to betray me, O sons
Of the mother of the terrified! — and you, O Jabr!

16. If a blow should strike the Ja?dariyya they would invite
Khuza'a or Nasr to them, with sweet words.

17. The Qays woo me and present to me their fine camels,
Yet no victory have the Banu 'Amir gained through me.

18. No Hilal have I accepted a trust from,
Nor a suppliant who brings wealth, nor a Shimr.

19. If the Ja'afira keep their trust in me, yet among them
Are rancors in hearts that harbor long-nursed grudges."

20. If I pardon them or pass over their ignorance,
The Banu Qays have no reproach for me nor complaint.

21. I used to refrain from insulting 'Amr
And Sa'd though their warriors' verses gave insult enough.

22. But for the Commander of the Faithful we would be exposed
To tribes who, or time itself, would work us harm.

23. Then we would lift up Tayyi' against them and their allies
The Banu Asad, to the place where dawn's light breaks.

24. And like hounds, when the districts of Syria hem us in,
To the Nile as fugitives, even if Egypt should be stricken with drought.

25. They seek the refuge of the Sultan from us, damn them!
Like him with shoulder wounds who cries out when the cautery is applied.

26. Else the Arabs of Bakr, son of Wa'il would leave behind
Emigrants none regards, neither clan nor in-law.

27. Our swords have left no tribe that fought against us
Without the notch that keeps count of them clear.

28. They performed the Pilgrimage, the Banu Nu'man, when their kingdom
Collapsed, and before the Banu Nu'man, 'Amr made war on us.

29. We wore the iron mail with plates over it and above them
The swords of death, pattern-welded of blue steel.

30. Our palms held the horses' reins and saddles' skirts, which excite them,
The double head-stalls did not prevent us grasping them.

31. Time and again, memory returns me to the sister
Of the Banu 'Amir, or the trace of her abode.

32. And to a white one — we vie not with the Abyssinian Negus for her —
When the collars shall be set aflame on her neck in the act of love.

33. One of those sweet girls who incline toward passion in youth,
While the soul yearns after her, and separation works its grief.

34. But between her and me stand walls and a palace,
As hard to traverse as a rugged mountain cliff.