1. Why, Akhtal, did you mention the women of Qais?
They were not frightened by you, nor taken captive.

2. The she-camels turned away from you to Dhubyan,
The judge has ruled that they should not be slighted.

3. And the women of 'Amir and the clan of Sulaym,
And the ripest fruits that were not squeezed nor picked unripe,

4. Their chastity was protected by jealous men,
Who repelled all enemies with their coats of mail.

5. With every long-necked, short-tailed, bay stallion,
Ridden by heroic, seasoned horsemen,

6. We attacked at dawn, raiding their camps,
Wrapping ourselves in spears as they awoke.

7. We left them in the morning, marked as cattle,
Given to drink the water of war, and slaughtered.

8. We pursue them when they retreat from us,
And chase them with the horses when they flee.

9. We are the leaders attacking with raiding parties,
Piercing the fog of death until it clears away.

10. As if the horses had been unleashed like hounds at dawn
To see behind the enemy what they sought,

11. They raged, not resting until their thirst was quenched
And their hunger for vengeance finally satisfied.

12. And if the horses of Qais had been marked
With dogs after defeating them, we would not care.

13. So the steeds of Qais will not be safe from you,
You will not spare their daughters or their sons.

14. They left tracks like an old crow in the monastery of Lubba,
And in Hadhrain they made the bells chime.

15. When their hooves trampled a Zuhairite slave,
You could hear his moaning.

16. They met the grindstone of Kulayb one morning,
The grindstone of Luqman that grinds the flour.

17. We drank from the blood of the clan of Habib,
And were it not for the distance, we would have had our fill.

18. We raided a thousand of their camels,
Not leaving a single pregnant female.