1. The cats have calmed down and left you or woke up early,
And a purpose in its turning disturbed them,

2. As if I am a drinker when they were forced upon them
From a flask whose contents are sour milk or chaff.

3. It came to them from those of spotty skin, a Kalba,
Chewing away the tip of its trunk, the nib.

4. A pleasure that its zealots attained,
So the wine could barely clear from his heart.

5. As if I am that one or one afflicted with yearning that
Addled his limbs or struck his heart with tremors.

6. Yearning for them and pining the day I followed them
With my sight, and by my side a group of stars thronged.

7. They hurried the riding beast so its shoulders bolted,
And in the breasts when they harbor rancor, flash.

8. To the people they flash until they confuse them
And their sight is weak when tested.

9. O killer of singers when they are certain
That you are one whom old age has visited!

10. They turned away when my taut bow bent
And the hair turned white after the blackness of youth.

11. I am not tempted by one calling for his need,
Nor are they tempted by one of white hair and coldness.

12. They beamed when the milker squeezed the udders yesterday,
And withered what was not the course of the verdancy.

13. So the eye suffers with the flowing water
From an intention to meet its people brings harm.

14. Toppled over like the toppling of a rope that follows them
Between the Pleiades and the eye of the divider is sight.

15. Until they descended from the valley in their wrath
To a land speckled with it Seyban or dust,

16. Until when they were still and the back of Al-Qaseem
And they peered—or they said “This is the dug pit”—

17. They pitched their origin, and we pitched from our breasts,
When one in need travels it prepares you.

18. To a man whose voluntary acts do not strip us bare,
God has granted him victory so congratulations on the conquest!

19. For one submerging adversity and the bird of good fortune,
God’s Caliph with whom rain is beseeched.

20. And the worry after the savior of the seld
With discretion, and the heart and wariness are the ears.

21. And the continuing thereby the command of all,
So that no deceit can fool him after its confirmation.

22. The Euphrates—when its eddies surge
On its banks and in its middle the canals—

23. And the winds of summer churn and excite it
Above the crashing foam of its injury, the harms—

24. Billowing from the Roman mountains hiding it
From them clouds wherein lies its force:

25. A day more generous than it when you ask it
And louder than it when it is loud.

26. And their evil and deception did not cease
Until they cleaved in absence the flesh of those they could.

27. Whoever conceals his advice from us
And the affairs of others are in his hands, is solely

28. The ransom of the Commander of the Faithful when
The sinews display a firm day of might.

29. One who pounces like the pouncing of a lion shaking its mane
For a battle destined to have significance.

30. Putting forth two thousand for a rank
The like of which no jinn or human has seen.

31. He destroys the bridges, building and ruining them,
Above which banners and flags flutter.

32. Until they have in Al-Taff a fierce battle
In which no pact was struck for it.

33. And for some peoples their misguidance is distinct
While that in whose cheek is disfigurement is corrected.

34. The independent one with Iraq’s burdens though
He had favor among them and hoarded.

35. In a clan of Quraysh who ally with it
Which no lofty tree can equal.

36. They encamp upon the plateaus and among its knolls
The people of nobility and people of pride if they boast.

37. A troop staunch for truth, curing rancor, of proud souls
When an adversity afflicts them, patient,

38. And if darkness should overwhelm the horizons
For them is a way out and a place to flee.

39. God gave them seriousness with which they gain victory
No seriousness but the small deemed paltry thereafter.

40. They did not share therein when they were its patron
And if it were for other people they would have shared.

41. The sun of enmity until gain is achieved for them
And the most clement of people when they judge.

42. Those of grudges cannot withstand their war
Nor in their staffs is deviance seen.

43. They are those who contend with winds when
Food is little for the healthy or scarce.

44. O Banu Umayya, your boons are magnificent
Fulfilled so no disfavor in them and no turbidity.

45. O Banu Umayya, I have fought on your behalf
The sons of a people who sheltered and gave victory.

46. I silenced on your behalf Banu Najjar though
You knew the hostility of Ma’add and they long blathered.

47. Until they submitted while embittered by me
And words penetrate what spears do not.

48. O Banu Umayya, I am an advisor to you
So no loudmouth feels safe among you.

49. Take him as an enemy; his witness
And what is hidden of his nature is repugnance.

50. Rancor—meet it though it comes
Like a womb hiding, then spreading.

51. You were granted victory by us for the Commander
When news of Batin Ghawtha came to you.

52. Recognizing for you the head of Ibn Hubab
Now succumbed with the sword marking his snout,

53. He cannot hear the voice though his hearing strains
Nor speak until rocks speak.

54. His corpse by Al-Hashshak spent the night
And his head beneath it, Ash-Shaykhan and As-Siwar.

55. As-Sabr asks it of Ghassan when they came
And sorrow—how the young men found you.

56. Al-Harith ibn Abi Owf we toyed with
Until the kites and starlings swapped it.

57. And Qays Aylan until they came frolicking
Then pledged you openly after their disbelief.

58. So neither did God guide Qays from their misguidance
Nor curse Banu Dhubyan when they stumbled.

59. They clamored against war when its calamities bit them
While Qays Aylan—its manners wearied them.

60. They were a people until when the ropes of Satan
Were cast on them, and they became confused.

61. They slid on a steep, perilous slope, its camels
Pebbles with no pregnant bellies or young.

62. The affair of its ignorant with Sulaym did not cease
Until deduction and the breasts were strained.

63. When they look—as they err in their stupor—
At Az-Zawabi we said after looking:

64. Turn back to your two settlements inhabiting them
As cattle return to their homelands.

65. So Singar became empty of them
Then Mahallabiya then Al-Khabur then As-Surur.

66. They do not meet a genealogist for lineage
Until he meets my grandfather the shining star.

67. Not mirages when their eyes turn green
Nor any but they are mortals.

68. And none who strived of them to catch us
Except he lagged from us embarrassed.

69. Indeed dogs of our enmity have been hit
By one of the afflictions feared and expected.

70. A matter other than harmonious has intensified
Between us wherein are no wombs or excuse.

71. As for Kulayb ibn Yarbu` they have no
Place with virtues, no access or sanctuary.

72. Deserters while people settle their affairs
While they are absent in blind ignorance.

73. Smeared at the rear of the meadows so
No remnant of shame in them leaves a trace.

74. Miserable is their morning drink and their drink
When cider and alcohol runs among them.

75. A people every obscenity has reached
And every disgrace censured Mudar with.

76. Upon wickedness, snarling, their shame
Reached Nujran or their scandals told in Hijr.

77. The eaters of rotten provisions by themselves
And beggars in absence of news.

78. Recall Ghudanah, a quiver full
Of rabble built around it the enclosures.

79. It harvests when heated in the fore of its armor
And leaks when touched by rain.

80. Ghudanah is not their equal in any way,
Wearers of sheepskins until the wealth abounds!

81. Joined to Yarbu` while their influx
In reciprocity submerged and paltry.

82. Gray beards from the fuel of fires when
Care of livestock ceases and milking slackens.

83. Then the return to blackened filthy cloaks
That do not cleanse when rubbed by stones.

84. Glory has indeed sworn truthfully not to ally them
Until the hair on the side of comfort whitens.