1. I dwelled in lands struck by tribulation
Where guards had hardened, from Umm Ma'bad's clan,

2. Spirits had settled there each evening
Leaving naught but shifts of tents wind-pinned,

3. And but three, like everlasting pigeons
And anxious ostriches and brooding camels,

4. When I saw they would not respond to me
I rose like a tom-cat, fleet and bold,

5. With my smooth-gaited she-camel, after that trek
Naught of saddle or supplies left but what she bore,

6. Whene’er you task her with a watering hole
Too far, and she grows weary reaching it spent,

7. She turns it back though the whip reveal its coils
Like the hissing of broth in bubbling pots,

8. Her teats swing with pure milk, pouring it down
To the cleft of the destitute, freshly drawn.

9. She hastens twilight's foragers and wards off
The harm of a twisting route 'neath the Pleiades,

10. Like Khensa, loud-voiced, raucous, bred for war,
Traveling, ever-ready, a mother weaned,

11. She came armed, by strength made formidable,
Securing the frightened fugitive's shelter,

12. With two ears that distinguish deliverance in them
To the planted heel of feet firmly shod,

13. And two eyes whose upper lids widen and stare
As if thickly rimmed with kohl daubed on the rim,

14. She wandered alone through meadow or waste, till beasts
waylaid her, from every covert and nest,

15. Unforgiven her privacies, she met her fate
In the end, by the hands of those she had suckled,

16. Blood by a corral, the birds shun it round,
Some joints for the cookpot, neatly butchered,

17. She shrugged off the absence of every beauty,
And dreaded archers on every perch hid,

18. Then sauntered like one relaxed and secure,
While right behind her the doom drew ahead,

19. Unaware of their nearness until she beheld
Them sitting her burrows, none left unoccupied,

20. They charged her together, both flanks at once,
She bolted, though harried until spent and done,

21. Driving off those ahead, or dropping behind,
Until the racers pressed and hemmed her in,

22. But she saved herself from the grip of death
By realizing her sole escape: face their arrows!

23. Smooth-running, no hitch nor stumble in her pace,
Her evasion by excellently curving turns,

24. She let out and came between them and herself
A cloud like birds scattered out of their nest,

25. With sandled hooves brought together she reached
A twisting wadi with steeply heaped sides,

26. To a ruin whose evening and morning shifts
Saw her wandering and taking respite there,

27. To a ruin she had trekked nights on end
Safe is the righteous man's path, purposed and sure,

28. No matter what hour you come upon him
Inauspicious or fair, disastrous or blest,

29. Is he not famed for freeing the fettered prisoner,
His sword striking down tyrants without relent,

30. Like Abu Shibl, a fierce lion defending his den
If he finds no helpers will never submit,

31. A warrior whose battle-zeal is feared,
Whose tongue and hand both charge and strike hard,

32. A weight on enemies, they cannot dislodge,
Bearing burdens, granting refuge to outcasts,

33. Is he not a cloudburst, his hands gushing forth
Welfare for orphans in years of dearth?

34. When Qays ibn 'Aylan attained the utmost
Glory and fame, who would race him to it, outstripped?

35. You surpassed all valiant challengers,
Outpacing to the summits with spirit unbridled,

36. Like the excellence of a steed whose lead none can match,
Sped though racers may strive and augment their distance,

37. Godfearing and pure, seizing no plunder
By impoverishing kin, nor acting faithless,

38. Except a fourth he took in all honor,
Without betrayal, not forcing the suppliant refugee,

39. He is content with it, though his sword might snatch
More, when fortunes shine fair and prospects glitter.

40. Were glory to make men eternal, you would not have died,
But the praise of men cannot make immortal.

41. Yet yours remains still, a legacy,
So bequeath your sons a portion, and take provision,

42. Provision for the day you pass away, which,
Though the soul reject it, is the final appointment.