1. The deserts of Balkh are empty of tents, the open plains,
The pastures, the lowlands and the mountain paths,

2. Leaving only the traces of dwellings,
As if a people had vanished and were gone.

3. God was not pleased with the clan of Zubayr, nor
With the Qays of Ailan, however much they fought and raided.

4. They respected the rebel while they themselves were a faction
Of Quraysh, apart from the rest—an outcast branch.

5. White-complexioned chiefs, sons of kings. But never
Will foreigners or Arabs reach what they amassed,

6. If they show you clemency, it is their way.
But death in the hour of anger spares none of them wrath.

7. It was as if when facing you, no ties of kinship
Or blood relation lay between them and their foes.

8. They were true supporters of the Right, seeking it
And attaining it. They never failed or flagged.

9. If the means exist to extend the Truth,
In their grasp lie the weapons and the means.

10. They strove for the Imam ibn Affan though after dark
They groped their way. Then they took light again.

11. A war that afflicted the clan of Awwam on one side—
Far be he whom the fire consumed and the flames!

12. Until their skulls reached Egypt, transported there,
While the cold makes them shake and the wood rattles.

13. If you come to Abu Marwan to ask of him,
You will find generosity and nobility present.

14. You see petitioners from all tribes crowded
At his doors, arriving in bands.

15. They gather to receive his bounty
While good things stand ready to be seized from his doors.

16. The ever-filling pot never ceases to boil
Where the wings of the house and the flames meet.

17. It is as though the cauldrons in each encampment
Were slain men stripped of their limbs and plundered.

18. People cannot fully traverse the length of his valleys,
Nor can any steed give as much as he freely grants.