1. If you see my head has become hoary,
And my temples have become bare of hair,

2. They were once of a single color,
But are now two colors, and in that is a lesson.

3. The turns of fate in its cycles
Are a garment, rising and falling.

4. While people in their pride
Suddenly plunge into an abyss and are gone.

5. The blessings of a people are but a loan,
And a man's life is a borrowed garb.

6. Its nights sap his strength
Cutting it down, while the horizons gleam red.

7. The night takes from him a power,
And as it revolves around him it does not diminish.

8. Fate has decreed for us that it
Is a darkness that cannot be dispelled by might.

9. Each day it has a new adversity,
From which no man of foresight escapes unscathed.

10. They unleashed their asperity upon us and shot
Their arrows above and below.

11. They taught stab wounds in the kidneys,
And the cutting of tendons, leaving the victim confused.

12. And charging on horseback, speeding across the plain,
The horses' necks dyed red in gallantry.

13. O sons of Hagar, evil was the idea
That you should attack and dispossess us!

14. If my dowry circulates among you for a round,
The responsibility among you is to restore it fully.

15. A horseman hurls it at you
Like a shooting star, his palm holding the fire of war.

16. He who has protected his honor from you
Now wages battle and is jealous for it.

17. A knight whose steed is well-trained,
Staining the lance when the dust rises.

18. He charges not out of ignorance and recklessness,
But with dignified forbearance for war.

19. The fool shows tolerance to be spared,
While the forbearing cannot restrain themselves when war comes.

20. We are the tribe of Awd, and for Awd there is a precedent
Of glory, which for us cannot be diminished.

21. A precedent we inherited from Mudhij
Before Nasr was attributed to the people.

22. We trained horses until the leather straps
Were cut from their chests and withers.

23. Whenever we marched we left behind a place
Where beasts of the land had banded together in dens.

24. You could see birds above our trail
Peering down, confident that it would continue.

25. A mass of cloud pregnant with rain,
And stars flaring and flashing.

26. The people deserted us, showing us their backs,
And fled, though fleeing does not ward off destiny.

27. Our kingdom is an ancient, original kingdom,
And the best of our people are the tribe of Awd.

28. Not long ago you were few in number,
Like the tail tufts of lambs among the young.

29. We are the people of valor on the day of valor,
When white hands flashing in it are taloned.

30. Away from you across the land we are Mudhij,
And steadily the night betrays the day.