1. The dwellings of Umm 'Amr are desolate,
Their mirage wanders aimlessly within.

2. If only the butterfly and the gazelle came,
The sand hills would seem to speak to you.

3. Of the ancient covenant they once honored,
Their limbs now at variance, no longer pliant.

4. Convey from me to the Banu Shayban:
No intimacy remains between us now.

5. You were once my brothers but abandoned me
When those stalwarts took their risks.

6. The Banu 'Allat entrusted me to you
While Malik and Yazid committed wrongs.

7. Wael and Qarie both perished,
As if the land behind them were made barren.

8. If Sedous withholds her two dirhams,
The wind still blows favourably.

9. Whenever war's steeds come, it harms me not
What the Asadi poet says or sings.

10. A mounted band of Bakr's Jusham
Whose torrents crack their prominent shoulders.

11. The Banu Umayya have clothed me
In shades of prestige that do not decline.

12. Abu Marwan Bishr took it on
With a merit that seeks no favour or change.

13. And Shuhba of forgiveness met us,
Her broken remnants a refuge for fugitives,

14. Apportioned as if its defenders
Passed between them a circulated cup.

15. A stagnation scarcely relieved for us,
Its ardour undiminished, unrestrained.

16. So it was repelled, by God's permission,
By the honesty of our elders and youth.

17. And the battle of Mashrafiya was locked
In iron, the tinkling behind its ring.

18. A strait so narrow, if the elephant rose there,
The noble steeds and foot-soldiers would tremble.

19. I have confined myself within it against my spirit’s wish,
And none can withstand it but a few.