1. O enthusiasm, between you my wiles are confined
And my right is lost between excuse and rebuke

2. So I said, though supporters are few and cowards plentiful
Had I been from Mazin my camels would not have been pilfered

3. The sons of Luqayt from Duhl of Shayban
If I were joined with the shepherds of the Arabs

4. They would lodge me and I’d reside in their quarters
And sorrow has touched me for their sons’ sanctuary

5. Then a group, hardy and bold, would rise to my aid
At Al-Hafizah, he who is audacious if tried

6. My staunch tribe who safeguarded their abodes
From perils as they demolished their abodes

7. No lion dares to tread their watering holes
A people when evil bares its incisors at them

8. They charge it like ostriches and single mounts
A people whose drink is the blood of heroes

9. And the clangor of lances in the fray gladdens them
When summoned to a war by whoever would test them

10. They do not ask their brother when enlisted
In tribulations, as Burhan spoke truly

11. So today my tribe, my asset and support
To gain what my hands never grasped

12. They betray me despite horses and numbers
But my tribe, abundant as they are

13. Are in no way wicked, though disgraced
They pardon my sorrow, excuses rendering

14. As one impotent to rule with competence
And if they see in people things indecent

15. They grant forgiveness for oppressors’ injustice
And for evildoers’ misdeeds, kindness extending

16. Each indicates God by their chastity
And endures the harm of the offender with mercy

17. And reckons the earth complains of their tread’s weight
As though your Lord created none but them, no other man

18. If they met each folk with what they reaped
Neither Arabs nor foreigners would tend their flocks

19. Rather they prefer a pure living, in seclusion cloaked
Would that I had them as a tribe, mounted if provoked

20. To launch raids, horsemen and riders interspersed