1. I saw the Quraysh when it was distinguished among them
The hatred of some and the disapproval of matters

2. Its summits were tall mountains from Umayyah ascending
As high as a plateau whose branches were not short

3. O Khālid, your doorkeeper is not cursed
Nor is your dog to the seeker unkind

4. O Khālid, the guest sees his family
When the two guests flee, every coward

5. They see a plain homeland and spacious house
And unrestrained path without enclosure

6. O Khālid, most highly placed of men in home and rank
Help us with abundant rain from your clouds

7. When the refugees afflict him, his hands drip
With the downpour of clouds pouring rain

8. If Umayyah were asked about me, she would say
She has a brother, protector of the sanctuary, victorious

9. When the cloudiness of a company turns from me
I don my saddlebags and litter

10. And I visit the fleeing in war—if only with him
The war would roar with any din

11. His brother is neither ill-omened nor one who
When disaster strikes him, lacks endurance

12. O people of Qays, your brother ‘Umayr
Was not shrouded in winding sheets or perfumed

13. The wind indicates him, diffusing its scent
Without perfume of camphor or fragrance of musk

14. And the slain of Banū Ri’l are as if their bellies
Were bellies of donkeys in the valley’s basin

15. And if you ask us about al-Ḥārith, we
Stabbed them with the tips of our spears and smote them

16. On the morrow when al-Ḥārith attacked us, they were
Like dogs whose fangs appeared with a snarling

17. And they came with a helping tribe, Umm Haytham's
But they did not return from confronting it with a camel

18. Whenever Umm Haytham mentions their fangs
Bellows a docked-tailed cow with braided tail

19. O you who reproached amid perils!
Do you not see my weakness and might of my supporter?

20. And a deathly darkness you should not have plunged into
My withdrawal from them was no easy matter

21. They wreaked havoc on both al-Muṣʿab’s
And they dispatched Iylān, the worst guide

22. They tied the hands of the petty liar
Killing him was no major matter for them

23. They usurped lands that only under protection
Of an emir could Hawāzin dwell in

24. And they repelled Tamīm and those next to them
With it every loose-robed man haughty