1. Love clings to the tangled locks of the disheveled one,
And death to the snares of passions.

2. Would that virtue, when our hearts are afflicted with sickness,
Were generous and brought healing!

3. For me insult has joy and charm,
And I love some of the rudeness of the uncouth.

4. I see frankness in women as superior
And chastity makes itself known on highborn ladies.

5. My heart has affection for all of them
Except every despicable adulteress.

6. She is not chaste, her veil remains in place
Until morning, fastened with kohl.

7. You find her rising as if she were praying devoutly
Until the adulterous whore gets up.

8. So if I boast of the Wailers it is because they have built
On the day of great deeds, atop every structure.

9. And if I specify the Banu Lujaym, it is because I
Choose the most generous people and folk of munificence.

10. A people who, when disaster strikes, endure
Calmly the finest praise and the heaviest burdens.

11. Our assemblies do not settle for someone
Who corrupts speech or spreads vulgarity.

12. They count whoever assembled armies by his firmness
As twenty, while he is counted among the living.

13. Horses swim with the waves as if they are
Birds showered from the shadows of clouds.

14. They emerge from resonant _rahij_ armor whose shadows
Are like locusts from the pebbles of Ma'zah.

15. From the pain of their girths and bridles they discharge
Foam mixed with the whiteness of blood.

16. How many a noble lady of a tribe has been widowed
And her companion left in the abode of ruin!

17. Verily enemies will never reach our ancient glories
Until they reach the stars of Gemini.

18. In Lujaym, how many a young knight who is like
Dawn cleaving through the darknesses of night!

19. Or like a trained steed whose stallions return
Only with spoils and never without prey.

20. A sea encircled with armor until the north winds die
In every winter.

21. And a tried one whose grinding teeth, when they meet,
Leave chests thirsting.

22. The links of mail are rusted as if they are
A camel clad in the thick wool of sheep.

23. We have found you to be our weapons, nothing else -
Not slingstones or staffs of the weak.

24. They cling to the throats of swords and open gashes,
Necks yearning toward every prayer.

25. And we certainly raided at dawn a raid
Until we reached our women with women.

26. Those are our steeds, and above our lives
Are the white forearms, fully extended.

27. They are strung from a throbbing vein as if its brilliance
Were a gulf rumbling atop the backs of ostriches.

28. The lances protect us, all together,
And make lawful after the sanctuaries of the inviolable.

29. Verily, swords give us refuge and we give them refuge,
Each gives refuge with glory and protection.

30. They do not waver nor do we drive back their edges
From the limit of every silent battalion.

31. Our swords function in the ranks by their edges
As fire functions on dry tinder.