1. The ruins of Sulaima are desolate,
Swept by winds where ostriches wander.

2. After me, Sulaima and its people
Were transformed to ostriches and oryxes roaming about.

3. I stood there crying the tears of a mourning dove,
A desert dove calling for its lost fledglings.

4. Whenever it remembers a day of past glory,
It sheds tears onto the branch where it perches.

5. I traveled from dawn until the thickening darkness
Concealed my traveling clothes and the finish line drew near.

6. As if my riding camel, on top of the barren hill,
Saw a metallic hawk swooping, so it bolted in fear.

7. We killed the two bright stars, Malik and Ajdal,
Two dear lives lost by your hands.

8. We made the spear his deadly horn,
Spilling his blood as if from a fountain.

9. We killed Murrah the Benevolent amongst you,
And Qurash, and Qurash was one of those men.

10. On the day they attacked with bared swords
That flashed against them, we were populous.

11. We turned against them with the zeal of predators
Until the valley flooded with horsemen.

12. On the day of al-Rabab we killed their protector,
And Hujr and Amr likewise.

13. We killed Jandal with his armies,
And we killed his elder before that.

14. While you, Imru’ al-Qais, are distracted by tambourines and flutes,
Waking drunk and sleeping the same.

15. The inheritance passed to its rightful owners
While you cry over it, destroying yourself.

16. You have not won the inheritance with your strings,
Nor were you steadfast when you did not defend it.

17. Had it not been for your running away, you would have met
The same fate they met, and that would have destroyed you.

18. That flight delivered you from destruction.
You warble songs when you capture a slave girl,