1. Your weeping on the day of parting, O frowning-browed mother,
And your anguish at the loss of an accompanying mate,

2. Gladdens you when news comes announcing his return,
While the plaits sway to and fro.

3. By your life, my nights have never turned away from you,
Nor been blind to hatred or blame.

4. But seekers of glory take precedence over homes,
When the choice lies between urges and desires.

5. Leave me to a people too dull to travel,
Whose tears of love inhibit roaming.

6. Ask about a youth who plunged into and explored the seas,
Girding himself for the journey, climbing over the mountaintops.

7. Never since leaving his land has he wiped his eye,
Until he came back visiting in the narrow ships.

8. With wealth, followers, and a banner
That tears out the throats of envious opponents.

9. With it he healed the grief that knew no equal
In the lands of East or West.

10. Before the truly heroic, truthful is his zeal,
A generous man, open-handed in gifts.

11. The brother of the brilliant state, mighty in command,
Judge of the judges of Islam, pure bred steeds.

12. They both alighted there, so it became narrowed for its people,
As narrow as the dust for the claws of young eagles.

13. They relinquished their world and married
Its hardships, as is the price of pure-bred steeds.

14. Their resolve carried the two grandsons upwards
To the highest place of glory and its steps.

15. Happy is he who spends his mornings and his evenings
Looking upon their two faces, always diligent!

16. For it was only with intentions directed to them
That I leaned my eyes continually forward.

17. Indeed, since they departed from me
My heart is torn, my breast afflicted.

18. The morning they left I aimed at separation from them
And from a heroic band like the stars in the sky.

19. A band loyal and founded in the faith of guidance,
Seeking only fair consequences.

20. An alliance of holy law, chastity and steadfast forbearance,
Still as mountains in their principles.

21. Had I the lives to give, I would have sacrificed them
To join their company, life after life.

22. For I cast myself before those best of men
To have my wishes attained amongst them

23. And joy is no blessing to a man
If his prayers go unanswered, his hopes unrealised.

24. I say to the elderly Shaikh of Bani Qais, outstanding,
Lofty in station, a noble occupation:

25. My father, refined in manners, inspiring awe,
Possessed of eminence, face turned to kinsmen and foreigners!

26. Do you see me lying in my words
Or will the brothers confirm them as truth?

27. For I have brought you the best of goods and glory, so rejoice
In a pleasant life or a happy outcome!

28. Men were created for such as this,
Else they deserve but the wearing of veils!

29. Have you not seen that a people revive their affairs
If they have a bold hero who spares no assailant;

30. One who, when the faith dies, takes revenge,
And places each grasping villain in positions of danger?

31. Were I not to open the gates of war,
Would my hand then have glory and my side invincibility?

32. I shall ignite its fires until I stir them up
In a land covered by darkness' extending robes.

33. I shall reveal the sorrow of Hadhramaut in a battle
That will make those with claws happy at their victims' fate.

34. With my sword I will take the number of its brilliance,
And satisfy with the blood I spill the father of cubs;

35. For I do not think that right will stand up
For its pillar and flutter except by the wailing women's cry.

36. What destroys a land is the one who sheds tears over it
If disasters should befall it - one of life's wonders!

37. When I carry my Indian steel sword I will turn
Oppressors of mankind into vile men with battered skulls.

38. Goodness lies only in swords and their clashing
And planting them in the head or the brows.

39. With them we attain paradise, houris, and high rank,
As well as honours and sought-after positions.

40. For a man to bear the sword, in God's name for an instant,
Is sixty years monastic service by an ascetic!

41. So what have I apart from the sword, fortress and refuge,
Until, when I meet it, the sword will be my companion?

42. The day it enticed me to war I drank in
Heart's blood between the ranks.

43. Like the son of Yahya, son of `Awf and Ubrah
And Balj and Mirdas - like Ibn Rasib:

44. Would that I had no life if my gut was not
Satisfied with a death in war that effaced me!

45. By my life! either I die, die, or if I live
How many wars to be doused in blood and calamity!

46. Indeed, O Lord of a momentous day present before us
Grim-faced, momentous in affair, rich in woes,

47. You will see people fallen in a lasting swoon,
Slain, prone, some dead, some fled.

48. There every soul shall know what it has sent ahead,
What it has stored in nights now vanished.

49. Let the misguided know I am truthful
In what I promise, when embroiled in war.

50. I wonder at vile, wretched, lowly riffraff
Who attack a land whose lord is noble.

51. Tainted, utterly tainted, accursed be every despised one
In a land whose lords are foxes!

52. Woe, alas for the man who secures his rule
A stupid fool whose pride is dunghills.

53. Lost when musicians' tunes grow noisy,
Intoxicated amid tender singing girls.

54. That miscreant shall know one day of clamour
Our rage still growing, when disaster feeds on disaster.

55. He who desires ugly death for himself
Let him refrain from our protection if he fears!

56. Sufficient for me is the tribe allied with Shabam,
Like rising stars fixed in the sky.

57. When they prepare white swords that quake
And shake the land’s mounts on every side.

58. O Shabam! You are the refuge
Where the enemy army meets its fate.

59. O Shabam! Where, where is any like you,
Preparing for war and driving off distress?

60. In the house of Hamdah bin Zayd, a band of heroes
Like the stars of night amidst disasters:

61. Stallions, stallions in the fray, souls and property theirs
If ever fearsome events should stir up turmoil;

62. O Bani Malik wrap the turbans about you
And bare the legs for Him on the throne, for war!

63. O Bani Malik no glory unless you don the
Cloaks, gazelles and lightning steeds!

64. He of Sabbah, a band whose fame
Sounds fair in esteem and pure deeds;

65. True natures in religion - O what natures!
Their hearts amidst clashes and warring;

66. May the Compassionate not make me forget their farewell,
That evening we departed in pouring tears!

67. In Mudayd and its sister Habus and Bur
How many dear hearts longing for me!

68. Blessing of God most high, Lord of the throne sublime
Upon Ahmad sent from a line victorious!