1. Visit Ummah though we've long been parted
Truth being she should be visited sometime

2. How to visit while she's inaccessible?
Her dove coos, wistful, mournfully whining

3. Sun of Victory smiles on clan al-Husain
Their abodes it illuminates occasionally

4. It takes from trays of silver ingots
Burnished sheets which graceful figures line

5. Bliss you see at a scorched intersection
Where a man rubs unguents on his legs

6. As though the sleeper wrapped himself in a cloak
Nay, he but adds more stirring and passion

7. You see him with a face which after intimacy
From being rosy turns pale again

8. As though the taste of well-aged wine
Permeated his spittle and teeth

9. She refused to leave Iraq though I wished
She had raised the howdah's curtains for me

10. To alight where our eyes with her presence are blest
And we'd see Ummah one moment, lose her the next

11. You spurned the warrior from your heart though he
Was the creed all your forebears had believed in

12. I see singing girls are naught but jinn
Like ghosts, if invited, do not respond

13. There you'll never find sincerity's place
Birth to them adds but further disdain

14. When they swear they break more than they keep
Oaths and perjurers they have aplenty

15. If frolicsomeness in a youth they sight
Beware lest your ropes turn out weak

16. Would that the south were asked and said not
A lie about me nor made false claims

17. You informed me and knew well my character
I forbear, but chide whomever's uncouth

18. To a foe I can be stern and strict
To a brother, mild when I see him weak

19. Of tanned skin and large kohl-lined eyes
I made her morn radiant as an idol's

20. When cares afflict me, I drive them away
With hands that sneak to touch all dangers

21. Coyness restrained the kohl like a dam
From her lids it burst, pouring liberally

22. It joins the imagination to the Pleiades after
Fireflies had mounted the boughs

23. And a mirage ran over Al-Ikam as though
Spiders there spun wisps of cotton

24. As though my she-camel's saddlecloth were a rug
Grazing the shrubs south of Katan's sands

25. With virgins of the plateaus between Saqiyah
And its sister-dune where partridges watch

26. Crazed with passion on a sacrosanct night
When she arrived clad only in her camisole

27. He bent his elbows lying stretched out
A deaf-mute with saliva drooling profusely

28. Sleepless, lightning makes him laugh fretfully
Like sparks from a flaming fire leaping high

29. Come morn he walked gingerly, apprehensive,
Loathing to rise, snapping the branches

30. At a dune's base he stumbled about mangy
Withered, the ruins were his place of rest

31. You'd think the ermines had toyed with him
Two dressers elaborately adorning a column

32. But when unawares they surprised him
The clan of Thaqwan had come for him

33. With swords from Saluq that were like
A moving fortress trailing its banners

34. They sought him persistently though his dust clouds
Veiled him while their dust, once stirred, smoked

35. Why didn't fear of them stop and drive him back
Were it not for memories of past fights?

36. He braced himself, blocking them with his sword, hardened
As though inside it steel teeth bit

37. When they retreated he resumed his trek
When they caught up he lunged and stabbed

38. Shame on the coward among proud feeders
Who brings humiliation to free women!

39. Let the keenest edge be to the fiercest
While to most he shows only kindness

40. Unscratched they returned in the morn
As he departed hastily, chafe-free

41. O Zuhair's son no free man of honour
Breathes the air except that he envies him

42. We suffice to launch raids at dawn
Plunder, return speedily, and unwind

43. We halt at every sanctuary we hear
Grants asylum and refuses to betray

44. When wars grew harsh Mailk headed them
Spear stabs being his most potent weapon

45. We obey our leader and let our own affairs
Be run by battle-hardened veterans

46. Despairing, I told her, "Intercede for me!"
And turn my need over to Amr's daughter

47. You know well Amr ibn Harithah's nature
Who knew men's deeds and educated the youths

48. Fine man to tie my reins to! We shan't complain
Of hardship on the road however great

49. You see both ancestry and birth going head
To head in rivalry and high fervour

50. One father's glory remains till Doomsday
While another guarantees only strife

51. You see the breathless racers making
ForLevel Plain, panting, lovingly bonded

52. Theyslip through the doors of Darat Majid's abode Whose dogs don't make guests rise in alarm
He prides himself that houses as glorious as his Should for a brief time be Time's lodging

53. Ghatafan! Your finest forebear, their master
Is your father when good deeds are recounted