1. My time lacked troubles that strained my endurance,
And knockers at the door of anxiety to occupy my leisure;

2. And supporters, though they be deaf, whose hands fall short of my hands',
And difficult problems that are too big for me to solve,

3. And sudden panic to make my blood run cold,
And news at the hearing of which my hearing grows numb.

4. How not, when I had, protecting me, the sword of Yaḥyā ibn Manẓūr,
Of wide renown, glittering blade, and polished sharpness,

5. Who, when the battle is joined, waxes fat on booty
And, when raiding the foe, thunders like a roaring cloud,

6. A flashing blade that would make the blind see, were its lightening to shine on us,
And the deaf hear, when its gleaming brightness appears.

7. I slipped away from a night of anxiety, which was as though
It completed the night of darkness with a second darkness.

8. And I sensed the glimmering of life behind death
And took comfort, from the burning battle, in a softly flowing spring.

9. Up to now, the markets of death, which are driven on by
The bright swords and sturdy, polished lances, have spared me.

10. I offer high prices to the seller of corruption
And redouble my expenditure of blood for blood with tears.

11. For troubles — begotten by rebellion and warfare was their mother —
Which have overwhelmed me, and which copiously flow.

12. So I tightened the saddle‐girth for the resolute one, Ḥāzim,
Upon a camel too distant in kinship and split openly in the breast.

13. And I said to the one who sang to raise our spirits: “Do your singing
In my dwellings out at pasture, and ply your art in the spring camp!” —

14. Hoping that you two may leave behind among my covenant‐tokens
Some of my spendings and planets of my tears.

15. And that you may gladden what the turning of Fate has desolated in me
And may uplift what time has torn apart in my unity.

16. I brought nothing away from the house of wealth save sorrow
Which I quaff in accordance with my status; and that is my allotted portion.

17. Until I attain the utmost reach of my term of life,
And until the furthest point that is upon the earth's broad surface; —

18. Misfortunes under which I did not close my eyes in sleep,
Nor fail to brace myself against them propped upon my side.

19. I endured them with a she‐camel strong enough to match a time
I cannot equal with her in stretching out her stride.

20. When I rode her, I checked the onslaught of deaths —
Never was one like her for me to mount in my gravest need.

21. The stumblings of a night that tossed and turned in its course,
And the wayward wanderings of a day that wholly lost its path.

22. My steps led down into every leaf
Of writings held in pledge, just as the seal stamps the letter's close.

23. When the Scorpion crooked her bendings, it was as though
She summoned up against her the curses of virgins broken in her embrace.

24. And she was watched by the star of the Pleiades, from a rising place
Where she appeared, scattered in the boughs of the grape‐laden tree.

25. And the Goat Star revealed a breast of emerald
Adorned with chrysolites and pearls all strung in line.

26. She made the blossoms of the garden smile, at the beauty‐charming dawn,
Between prudery and freedom, coyness and surrender.

27. I traveled a night whose darkness was confusing; and you came frightened by
A ghoul loud‐voiced and quick of hearing.

28. The choice part of the fearful solitude in the blackness of night,
And the elect of the shining of the tribe's fires that pierce the deepest dark!

29. Would that I had never there unloaded my mount of the like of his eyelids!
Would that I had never loosed the necklace's line from his fawn‐like form!

30. Then if, O Victorious One, a yearning for home assails him in your land,
A yearning that spurns dwelling among the tribes and drives away returning —

31. And if his rope clings in the confines of your kingdom:
Well, a rope of loved ones is one that snaps its threads!

32. And if she waxes fat in the meadows of your favors with her pasturage:
Well, how often has she crossed wilderness having no meadows!

33. And if she quenches her thirst to the full in the sea of your bounty:
Why, once with the tribe she endured nineteen days of thirst in ten!

34. And if you bring her, O Yaḥyā, back from the death she faces:
Well, how near is the ugly smack of death's taste to causing anguish!

35. Hands of a king, every one of which was for me a place of last resort —
No, among mankind they have no match, and nothing resembles them!

36. For a branch that grew high, then bent over with the ripeness of its fruit;
For a stock that flourished, then towered up, lifting its boughs;

37. Which brought blessings, and lavished bounties,
And produced gifts, and poured forth benefits;

38. And there came down to it a kingdom inherited from Tubba`,
Together with what it led of armies and brought up in the rear of armies;

39. And it was crowned with a crown, and clothed in robes,
And invested with a sword, and covered with a coat of mail;

40. And all choicest of Ṭayyi' and both tribes of Kinda — their quiescence, Mazḥij,
And Kinda, and both groups of the Allies, and Anṣār, and ʿAbd Shams:

41. The unique pearl of priceless things; besides its sword
Thrusting in the van of flight, most worthy of the singular!

42. Its pen makes you forget, upon the breast of parchment,
Breasts of virgins in necklaces and coats of mail.

43. And if it meets peers, it traces on their breasts
Calligraphy with pens, and spots them with droplets of ink.

44. And how many a face from non‐Arabic stock has it rendered mute
With omission in non‐Arabic letters; and made steeped in Islam with opening and raising!

45. And ever opposed to it, in every possessing tyrant,
Even if he is too strong in cleavage for sewing together! —

46. And one who took refuge in a hold, whose outskirts
Became too straitened by the trampling of those brought near for stamping with heels!

47. You smashed his household goods, O Victorious One, with a smashing
That deafened, by its noise, all with sharpness of hearing.

48. And you left him a lion strewn over a campsite
Which the champions of idolatry with rupture upon rupture abandoned.

49. And woe to them from an encounter which made it seem to them
As though God's sky were falling down on them with direct hit! —

50. By virtue of the destruction of an abode left without defenders,
And the overthrowing of authority losing resurgence of its strength;

51. And the carcasses of a wilderness in which horses
Fulfilled their purpose for them, to the loss of the horses' spring encampment!

52. With swaying haunches — as though, when they collapsed, their recumbent forms
Became the dwelling place of their fatigue, the lofty hill of their weariness: —

53. Never may Islam lack your guardianship — it will not fail;
Never may paganism feel secure from your might — it will not be tranquil.

54. Our feast days will be restored to us, returning
Through your regime — like the dove's return to billing;

55. Never may your name in the pulpit be made lonesome on a Friday,
Without one praying for you, so complete is God's workmanship in you!

56. Nor may gatherings for your mention destitute of loving friends
One who calls down God's mercy upon you, so due is His summoning you!

57. Nor will He who has exalted you above me refuse any prayer
In which the heavens' seven spheres are disclosed unto.

58. By what you have granted me of my arrow's flight; what you have strengthened of my hand;
What you have warded off for me of my misfortune; what you have brought near to me of my advantage —

59. My praise of you has become inseparable from loss of consciousness,
Even as my well‐being in you has grown inseparable from reunitedness.