1. No drawing adorns the scroll, nor have I
Twisted a banner's peak aside for it to fly.

2. Empty are Torah and Bible; desolate
Every valley and meadow where once flocks used to lie.

3. Home of a folk whom fate's keen blade did smite,
Their dwelling-places now like sieves appear thereby.

4. Ruinous all, saving some ash that mocks
And remnants of tent-pegs in each dwelling nigh.

5. Decaying hearthstones, ruined encampment-floors,
And vestiges which, since the days of old passed by,

6. Have been effaced. Ostriches wander there,
Gray fowls that utter plaintive, long-drawn cry,

7. And antelopes, as though their does were scared
Mothers that whimper over young near by.

8. There my tribe's maidens came, their raiment trailing,
Intending should I greet them, or pass by?

9. If your wish be love, though time in its advance
May have decreed our doom, do not deny

10. Affection. You are white as lightning's flash;
If I approach, my garments brushing nigh,

11. Leave off from frowning and come live with us
In hope - perchance the future we may belie.

12. If raiding be your wish, the tribe has many
A hero, lithe of form, the steed to ply.

13. She said that I was aged and lacking wealth,
That kinsmen lavished nothing on me by

14. Way of allotted shares; my case was known;
An old man, not the like of them am I.

15. If she but saw me, from my face the hue
Departed and gray hairs showed plain thereby.

16. Yet to the maiden, cowering in her bower,
Like a gazelle, I turned me, drawing nigh,

17. Then stroked her throat-pearls, whereon she inclined
Like a sandhill in a gale of wind blown high.

18. Then she cried, "Save yourself and me! Your wealth
Redeem with mine, and turn you from them. Fly!"

19. So leave the censurers; of me have shame,
Lest portion equal with the rest have I.

20. Some provide nothing, others are unkind,
Miserly souls who hoard for those nearby.

21. Leave Sa'd's tribe scornful, dwelling in Quṭaibah,
The glens of Wabar or in Rayy thereby.

22. They have seen no raid of steeds nor did their hooves
Pound in the plain, when the war-cry rang on high.

23. Youth's glory and tumultuous throng are gone,
The brown lances borne on camel-back thereby,

24. The battle charges, and the edged weapons, honed,
Borne slung from saddles of the cavalry;

25. I made the morn recoil like the shyest
Steed, nor weakened, nor my nerve and sinew ply

26. A bow, but a well-feathered reed so cast
That it outstripped the thousand, speeding by.

27. It stripped the Uzayyid leaders of their mail
As the stroke of peel strips date-palm branches nigh.

28. Full often have I charged on Thursday raids, spotted she-asses,
Scared mothers seeking their young, hurrying by.

29. I stabbed her with its point - no care had I -
And struck her down with cane thick-jointed, dry.

30. The war-mares, fettered in camp, I loosed at dawn
And drove them off full gallop, sweeping by.

31. Then one I hobbled and strapped its saddle on,
Like a new moon its figure showed thereby.

32. An 'Antar am I, marked with beauty-spots!
By night a lass confounded me, passing nigh.