1. They said, "O caretaker of the water, do your best
In serving it, for the one who serves it depends on a water skin."

2. While ‘Umayr, with expectant glances, saw
‘Ubādah - if you meet a frowning hater of virtue,

3. I dislike you since I saw your ugly face openly.
The people do not hide the traits of the open-faced.

4. Once you were called the servant of Jesus,
But you were treacherous, and treachery is an ugly reputation.

5. You have wearied Qays, even if he comes like an onslaught.
Not everyone with lineage, even if they are equal, runs the same.

6. My two milk-sheep stayed the night bleating in Ruqayy,
As if two bereaved mothers were calling in ‘Awān and Biksar.

7. It did not harm them that they did not pasture in the preserve,
Or seek good grazing grounds safe from harm.

8. They came in the morning yielding milk, and went out dripping it,
While the Pliades appeared at first light of dawn.

9. If the basin of Ibn Salīl became putrid,
It would be unaffected, with little or no murkiness.

10. Those are the exemplars whom one is guided by
To this day. So cease interfering in what is not your concern.

11. The horsemen of Bustām are upon you for their mother -
The sons of the suns have inherited nobility from the full moons.

12. Whenever a people spurned me, I pelted them
With a hideous invective that broke their backs.