1. A mediator from the virtuous family of Raddwa has appeared, so let us put him to the test
When the free and enslaved come together, patience is most beautiful

2. The dwelling of a drunkard is empty, containing nothing
Except apparitions, greetings, and the soft sand

3. My heart recovered, except from the charms of maidens
Among them the son of Khallas and Tufayl and 'Azzahal

4. It was as if one morning I surrendered to separation as a Muslim
With a stroke to the neck or as an enslaved convict

5. A drunkard’s corpse raises its head to live though its bones and joints are dead
We drag him at times and take care of him at others, and he barely retains his senses

6. When they lifted up a bone, his chest struggled
While another, from what he obtained from it, is smeared

7. I drank until a train came to me from Palestine, heavily laden
With goats from Ma’zra loaded, taken up and lowered

8. It stops at times so singing or roasting meat comes between us
Pleasant to one resting, delicious to one drinking, it sends me into reverie

9. An intoxication that came upon us was followed by things
That we take pride in and from which we drink

10. It crept through the bones as if it were the creeping
Of ants in a valley meandering

11. So I said, “Kill it, unpleasant though it is,
And make it most fragrant when killed”

12. The son of a city grew up in her lap, living in her touch
If he feared sparse rain upon her, he would channel a brook that trickles

13. I have no fault in you except that you shorten your blame of me
I will leave you and do what I was doing

14. And shun you beautifully, and the first of our passionate nights will avoid us
When the folly of a lover had passed from me

15. The deliberated of my needs appeared
To a obsessive thought from the family of Thumayya, the one

16. Whose abode has a locked gate and a staff with bells
And a desolate place where its ostriches seem to be,

17. In its furthest parts, a disheveled hummal
You see the gleaming sand in it as if it were

18. Men who sometimes don clothes and sometimes go naked
And a frightening wasteland where its hyenas do not wink

19. Nor do the eyes of its guide neglect it out of fear
In every distant, frightful place, there are no known paths

20. Or signs, and no watering place in it
Sporting places of jinn, as if their soil,

21. When the winds blow through it, is sifted
I endured when al-Hirba’ was closer, as if it were

22. A Yemeni pilgrim or a shackled prisoner
To the son of Asid Khalid—empty plateaus of Ta’ruwiyy carried us

23. Through which fierce wastelands crawl
You see the fox on it as if it were,

24. When rising alert, a fully caparisoned steed
You see the red-necked bustard striking its boundary,

25. Feeble as a chick emerging from an egg
Cleaving the smoothness of the slopes from their fetus,

26. A brother of barren stupidity and most vile
The journey did not stop until her dwellings stooped

27. However packed and unpacked they were
And entrusting them to every departing dwelling

28. Whose flight saw that her ruins swayed
Until they were obscured, as if their eyes

29. Were remnants of a leather waterbag or a patched waterskin
And the gazelles’ eyes met, so they are stripped

30. By misery and exhaustion, and made to dwindle
Their remnants went to every barren land

31. That, after resettling, has open space and knee room
They fell upon it as birds do, and it contains

32. Nothing but a barn returned to by one limping
Unless there were camels moaning in their resting places

33. And pregnant ones like folded up crates, shriveled
Bearing heavy needs that drive them back

34. To the best dwelling, urged by one emaciated
Until I arrived, arriving at Khalid’s side—

35. So the best hoped for youth and the most expected!
O Khalid, your spacious refuge for those who have descended

36. And your rain has sufficed the vagabonds unleashed
He is the auspicious leader and the one sought

37. To steady a millstone that was shaking
Your strong, seasoned wood refused anything but firmness

38. And sufficed you only as one who attains his request
O you who strives to reach Khalid—be gentle with him

39. And limit some of what you are doing!
For if the distance were great for you, would Khalid

40. Be your equal or bear what is carried?
It refuses you to overpower or attain him

41. A narrative whose truth the people doubt and interpret
Umayya, al-'Asi—though Khalid calls them,

42. Hisham answers them with action and resolve
They are the eye of water; with them and in their presence

43. Is deliverance and transformation from fear
Allah watered a land—Khalid, best of its people,

44. With a downpour whose isolation caused it to erode
When the north wind stabbed its valleys,

45. The irrigation of the lowlands was most sweet
When the wind shook it, it dragged its train

46. As a heavy crocodile creeps
Salty, as if the lightning in its rooms

47. Were lamps or bundles of blazing kindling
So when he headed towards Yamaama, intending it,

48. The south wind called him, so he turned, writhing
He watered La’la’ and the two Qurnas, but could barely stand

49. The weight of him on La’la’
And he left Ukum al-Hazn floating as if

50. With what it drew from him, kneading bowls bubbled
And there rose for ad-Dahna’ a salty ground as if

51. It were laden with fragrant gum, heavy
And he arrived at Ma’rasaniyaat, so gazelles frolicked

52. In its meadow, made fat by him
Indeed, al-Jihaaf has committed against people a crime

53. For which the complaint and hopes are to Allah
Ask the family of Marwan—what of a pact

54. And weak rope that does not cease to be connected?
With the caprice of a bandit after Mus'ab has passed,

55. Disheveled, never ransomed or washed
Al-Jihaaf brought him to you, then ordered him

56. To kill your neighbors midst the houses
Your neighbors had what, had you invited them to it,

57. Would have brought you the most rational of mankind
So change it, O Quraysh, or your rule

58. Will become disgusting and rejected by Quraysh!
And we will shame some naked people who dislike it,

59. And live nobly or die and be killed
And if you tolerate them, there is no tolerance,

60. However heavy, except the people's blood is heavier
And if you turn away from us in this matter of right, we will not

61. Be blind to truth! Rather, we ask about the right!
We can descend on the fearful and dreadful gap

62. With might—and the day at hand is most serious