1. Stand in the dwellings not worn by time,
Rather, the winds and blood changed them.

2. Not the abode changed after my companion, nor
If it were addressed, would it respond though deaf and dumb.

3. A house of Asma in Al-Ghamrein lies desolate,
Like revelation with none of its people left.

4. I saw it recently, no longer sturdy,
Its secret is the valley’s trench, then its ruin.

5. So neither a bower in the valley of clouds, nor
An eastern Salma, nor tents, nor spears, nor a tent peg.

6. The hills flanked them, blessed on their right,
While the heights and tents were to their left.

7. The ships sailed until blocked for them
By the palm groves, then farms, then vines.

8. My eyes flowed with tears for them,
Sadly, though they are nations.

9. A west wind at dawn, or restless pearls
In a necklace whose knots slipped from its string.

10. My pact with them the day of the two villages, when
The tents and armed men vanished.

11. After us it adopted a Yemeni abode,
Grazing the autumn, its nearest house gloomy.

12. The miser is blamed wherever he is, but
The generous man in his high place grows old.

13. He is generous, granting the seeker,
Forgiving, though occasionally treated unjustly, so he acts unjustly.

14. And if a friend comes asking one day,
He says, “No absent wealth is mine, nor sacred.”

15. The leader’s horses are defeated, their backs
Bent, some thin, some gaunt and small.

16. They are worn out, their shoulders high
On crooked legs, their flesh little more than skin.

17. They toss the grey hair of their forelocks at every halt,
Crows and vultures peck out their eyes.

18. They stretch their necks, the death rattle
In their throats, their nasal passages blocked.

19. They tread on stiff-legged, barely walking,
Bandaged and fettered in their hobbles.

20. They begin to falter in their pace, their
Shoulders weighed down by sorrow and pain.

21. A noble and generous man urges them on
Until, when the people camp and settle down,

22. They turn aside from the watering places
And face forward, tossing their plaited forelocks.

23. Some listen to the chainmail on
Their shoulders’ nape where their long hair grows.

24. Others you see whose equipment
Is from David’s weaving or what Iram left behind.

25. They strike the eggshell lances when they join,
Never retreating when meeting the enemy.

26. Their horsemen watch for the chief’s order, then
Cinch the saddles tight around their saddle-cloths.

27. They pass the time going gently with their spear butts
Until, when raiding seems propitious,

28. They all spur ahead, all gaunt,
Their coats of mail and rings clinking.

29. They snatch away the goods of a generous people
A sea overflowing to the safe when they are gone,

30. Until it turns to no wanton waste or
Stingy hoarding when its men take spoils,

31. But divides and makes even the shares among them,
The just arbiter, neither captious nor rash.

32. He preferred them above other peoples and honored them
With what those did not obtain, though generous and noble,

33. The steeds’ leaders and brothers of kings, lions
In places, though there they are indifferent.

34. He snatches away the goods of worthy men
Made accessible to him sometimes as spoils,

35. And from his tithe, piety protects him
From stumbling into sin – God and family honor.

36. Inheritor of glory, neither weakness nor tedium
Tempt his resolve for leadership away.

37. Like the Indian, his presence in the midst of swords
When lances strike does not shame you.