1. My friend, do you see any enemies
In the valley's winding pass, a prey in the open?

2. They walked with trailing robes and raised
The saddle-pads of the smooth mount above the cruppers,

3. With every roan Gathayan camel there was a rider
A Ju'maliyyah with braided hair on her head,

4. And an old reddish-black camel, shaggy, left behind the drove,
With tusks from which issued the bellowing of young camels,

5. And every snarling beast whose hind-legs
When the she-camels raise their tails,

6. With a neck writhing with what is attached to it
And two water-skins that gurgle with every drinker.

7. As though the landmarks surrounding it
Of the horses were a circle brought near for a wager.

8. By your life, I and the son of my paternal aunt will spend the night
Wandering in the dark, both mounted on swift camels,

9. When we camp, having no pillow but the ground,
And that is no comfort to the coward.

10. By the tent-rope one who spreads his two arms, wrapped up,
Bent over, and above him cast skins.

11. Four of them he folded into pairs over pairs,
So they became eights with their doubles.

12. To you from the Yemeni cave they rushed pell-mell,
Both his hands and purpose confused.

13. As though a black pandemic mare mingled with them
Having two water-bags hanging slack.

14. It continues to sway in the halter as though
When it kneels down it is a bow of arteries.

15. Sneezing through its whiskers in front of its nostril,
And if you wish, bleating among the flocks.

16. How often it has crossed from pool to pool
And I watered it from between the two valley-sides.

17. While the dusty gray hair of its forelock fluttered
I supplicated against its length and it answered me.

18. Knocked down with it on the ground until it was as though
It was the throwing-stick's brother thrown by the player.

19. When the torrents carry away my property once
The son of Sinan's message contains my request

20. And the request of others - he has abundant resources
And an unstinting source of bestowal and clarity.

21. He establishes for my people in my gifts a precedent
For if my people transgressed against me, enough for me!

22. As though the needy around his domes
Were camels at a pool exuding drivel.

23. When they overrun the stipend he divides them
Skins of aged sheep behind skins.

24. When the horses pranced in the meadow and were uncovered,
Glowering and not asked for anything but the lance,

25. And all wheeled about and then were separated between them
His lance watered her among them with a red vessel,

26. A man who does not encounter the spear except with his chest
When the vitals of every coward tremble.