1. I see you shedding tears, though patience is your trait
Is there no law forbidding love, no rule you must obey?

2. Yes, I pine, though hidden grief consumes me night and day
One like me reveals no secrets left unsaid.

3. When night enshrouds me, I reach out to love
Subduing a tear whose nature is normally proud

4. At times, the fire burning in my heart
Nearly shines forth when stirred by passion and thought

5. My excuse for nearness or death without it
Is that if I die thirsty, no rain will fall

6. I kept our love safe, though I neglected it
Better than full loyalty was my excuse to you

7. These days are only pages
Whose writer's hand holds both good news and more pain

8. Of all the living, my passion sets me apart
My desire is sinful, yet pleasing at its heart

9. It creeps to those who blame me, though my ears
Hear not their gossip, shut off from all their "wisdom."

10. I've turned strange to my tribe, feeling odd among them
For one not of a house will find it empty and cold

11. I've fought my people over love of you, and but
For passion, we'd be as oil to water, wine to milk

12. So if what the gossips say were true, which it is not,
Faith still might topple what disbelief has built

13. And in this life, the shame of disloyalty pains me more
Than any betrayal by a woman known for her treachery

14. My dignity and composure sometimes give way
To playfulness, like a docile filly who still might bolt

15. You question me, "Who are you?" though you know too well
Would one like me not be recognized by all?

16. I said whatever you wished, as love dictated
You said "Who do you claim to slay?" I said "Many!"

17. Had you wished, you'd not have questioned me, since you know me
But such pretense is dearer to you than honesty

18. You said time has been harsh with me since we parted
But no, I swore - you and not time have been harsh!

19. With no path left to penetrate the heart but you
Only love builds a bridge to sorrow's land

20. Playfulness and seriousness both torment a lover's soul
When distance intervenes to practice its bitter art

21. So I knew no honor awaits a lover after me
That all I cling to, my hands will soon lay bare

22. I turned it over in my mind but saw no peace coming
When our separation pressed on me night and day

23. So I resigned myself to time and to your judgment
You've done no wrong deserving punishment, while I have an excuse

24. It's as if I call to a shy gazelle, standing anxious
On a hill turned to stone by fear, watching for the dawn

25. Now leaping, now looking back, as if beckoning
To a fawn the verdant valley has overwhelmed

26. So do not deny me, cousin - let all peoples, rural and urban, know me!
I am no stranger, though feet stumble and victory camp nowhere near

27. I am a warrior, known by every brave regiment that glories
When my victories swell, as the new moon swells the night

28. I charge any stronghold, undaunted, appearing at dawn
While the stones still sleep, cloaked in darkness before day breaks

29. I thirst until the eggs and milk are sated
I hunger until the wolves and eagles eat their fill

30. No dawn breaks on a living camp I have not raided
No army's warned of me before the threat appears

31. O lord of a house whose bastion frightened me not!
I came upon it with the dawn, I and no other

32. I drove the horses till the land was mine
The veils and wine came to me, and the lovely ladies

33. The trailing-robed beauty I met - none before
Had known such a meeting, no, nor even dreamed of it!

34. I gave her all the army's spoils, every bit
And left without unveiling her face or piercing the veil

35. Wealth never burdened me with its robes
Nor did poverty's thin rags make me complain

36. I have no need of riches to flaunt their plenty
When my honor is spared, no shame mars my pride

37. I was captive, but my friends knew no despair beside me
My steed was not a pampered pet, nor was its lord miserly!

38. But when fate descends on a man, nothing will shield him
No land, no sea, just the closing grip of fate's fist

39. My friends said "Flee or stay!" I said both notions
Were options - but I'll take what leaves no bitter taste

40. They say I sold safety for destruction
But no, by God! In this exchange I have lost nothing!

41. Can death keep its distance an hour when life's armor,
Health and joy have clattered away, leaving me alone?

42. Death always comes, so choose what most lifts your name
A man lives on as long as his name lives too!

43. Better to face fate with courage than ward it off
Through the deep dishonor Amr ibn Kulthum once showed

44. They gloat they've stripped me of my robes, but really
I'm clothed in glorious red they'll always recall!

45. My sword stands planted in them, its sharp point stuck fast
My spear's broken haft still piercing their chests

46. When the need presses, my people will remember me
As the full moon is recalled on a moonless night

47. If I live, they will recognize the blows they know too well
The eggs and milk I seized, the blond plundered herds

48. If I die, a man cannot escape his destined end
Though years stretch on and life's span widen far

49. If another took my place, then be content with him!
Gold does not increase when counterfeit coins pour forth

50. I stand with a sword whose blade is drenched red with blood
And spear-ends broken in bodies have shattered their chests

51. My people will recall me when the need grows dire
As the full moon is recalled on a moonless night

52. If I live, the blows they know will live on as well,
And the milk and eggs and plundered fair-haired herds

53. If I die, no man can escape his destined end,
Though years should pass and life stretch on far

54. We are a people who recognize no compromise
For us there is either the battlefield or the grave