1. By your life, when Ibn Zarwan took refuge
I did not spurn his plea for affection, ascetic that I am,

2. Nor do you, Ziyad, have a lineage to count
Nor a father in this wide world,

3. Have you not seen how Abdel Qais disowned you?
So you met what no other man has met,

4. Yet my arrows did not miss you the day you were disowned,
Lakiz son of Afssa is nobler than you, though the army be massed,

5. Not did the sun set before
The dwellers of villages and mosques talked

6. Of your banishment, so you became a disgrace, whoever visits you,
And whoever visits your daughters knows

7. They are born of adultery,
And they have become spinsters who spin for hire

8. Around your abode, though no swords have touched them,
They left Musa and stayed in the place

9. Where doves nest and eagles descend,
In Isthakhar, out of long poverty

10. They have not worn new garb, nor are cushions laid for them,
You are not related to the house of Aamir,

11. Nor were you born to virtuous noble ladies,
Nor did Hanzala's daughter suckle you, as she fed her sons,

12. Nor were necklaces put around your neck,
Rather, the polytheists fed you, and rubbed

13. Against your nape and cheeks the supple camels,
And I have not seen, Ziyad, one like me, whose honor

14. Can be discerned, while the sword bears witness,
If I sheathed the sword in you, none would say