1. From the ruins' drawing as lines so clear
No poetry like Al-Farazdaq’s appears

2. To the palm trees and then the bent ones around Sawayqah
That revels in the soft sand and spotted hide

3. Abarrens where Umm Rafi’ pastures
Her camels among the tussocks and rock

4. When she’s a cheek like the trailing robe, close by
Baring what shows from mantle and chest

5. Like a spinster feeding on truffles though having
No little camels, no lambs that bleat

6. Pleasures for her are mint or its berries
Repulsing guts so statuesque and compact

7. When the sun was somewhat unveiled from its veil
She’d welcome it with litter’s edge and trunks of lote

8. Oh passerby, should you meet them, transmit
To ‘Uqail and Abu Bakr when you occur

9. That you are best folk unto your folk
Though saying in assemblies like neighbor-shunning

10. Leave aside, we will leave you a side
Spacious between Yamamah and Al-Qahr

11. Did our number delude you, mere pebbles
As surplus on heads and in hair they occurred?

12. As though you were told or you knew
Those loyal to us - no sleep nor movement

13. You lied, by God’s house, until you take on
Raids of war that relent not nor die

14. Horses we’ll ride, no affection among them
We’ll raise our spears with the ferrules red

15. We’re no spear-planters, our lances
Nor deviators from the goal or limit

16. We are of folk noble, proud
When horses catch up with their horsemen they run

17. And we, when the racers catch up with their racing
We don them the hides of lions and leopards

18. By my life, evil you spoke when you told us
Ours are might and friendship - you spurred estranging

19. My father, knight of munificence, ‘Amr
Ibn ‘Aamir who refused blame, chose loyalty over betrayal

20. Indeed I am most wretched of men, if you
Avenge those killed - Khuzaymah and Al-Khadhr

21. I am tasked with avenging a group I am not from
Neither their patron nor aiding their aid

22. They say: “Abandon your Master, unjustly we’ll kill Him
And leave behind you what Bujaylah brought of hardship”

23. I am tasked with the Banu ‘Eys’s slain, the ‘Eys
Of Shawahit - that’s something clear, my appraisal

24. And the slain Bajirra’s horsemen caused
With the ferrules of Al-Radini’s black lance

25. Oh two brothers of one father and mother
Towards you, towards you - no way to bridge building