1. They have crossed neither nation nor land,
They have crossed what lies between lava-desert and Golan,

2. In ignorance and knowledge,
In darknesses and dawn-shining lanterns,

3. Their hands counter the claws of eagles,
With feet like racing camels,

4. What will they meet in the Buseyan wasteland,
When first appeared like the cry of the naked,

5. And the people murmured like murmurs of heroes,
And they faced a gentle, cooing night,

6. Her mast sways like a drunkard sways,
The night of the poor is but a devil,

7. Awake stealing the soul of man,
With her the people pray prayers of the deaf,

8. A land wherein the mother of confusion grows heavy,
The night has clarified and the marshes are far,

9. Between the noble and the base counterpoised,
As weights on the scale’s midpoint,

10. As if the eagles had swooped down,
And gathered them from a burdened mount,

11. Difficult from characteristics and oaths,
The new grows old yet they are ever renewed,

12. Nothing perishes so they will never perish,
Cavaliers who riven them gulf and ridge,

13. Every dawn they ready themselves compelled,
Grey ones kept from the vultures’ approach,

14. They pasture not though the time be come,
Saved when the foolish ones are confounded,

15. O Ibn Julayh be thou guide to the riders!