1. Did you not know, O mother of repentance, that I
Am quick to grasp the events of time, not dull

2. I hold fast my reigns against all hated things
And for what has passed, I have a heart of ice

3. What the liar left of our possessions
And the raiders, save for a few scraps

4. Is it just that he take all I own
While the estate of Ibn Sa'id rests secure with me?

5. So if I do not repay them with a regiment by morn
I will grip their iron bonds with my bare hands

6. They wrecked my home and led my wife
To their prison, with Muslims as my witness

7. And they rushed her to draw her veil
How strange, has time thus fettered me?

8. I am no son of the free man if I do not tend them
With horses that clash with black lances

9. My horses did not flee, but I drove them
Against a mighty horde, fully equipped

10. My horses know that I, if blocked from the thrust
Will dodge behind the boulders and pretend

11. Ancestral inheritances are ours, long passed down
When our swords are done with one regiment

12. We fling another at dawn into lethargy
If they come out of a trance, my prayers and goading

13. And cheering drive them back for me
I say to them, complete the ransom of my father

14. And all I own, my kids and wife
I ransom them with my parents, and among them

15. Are wounds like burning embers
You see the spatter amidst the striking of swords between them

16. With cheeks streaming blood and reddened necks
It changed the hues of the swords between us

17. To red from the tributaries of veins, the quarry
They and we spun around, and spun were their souls

18. With every threat, a different executioner
And the people of Maqati' surrendered their souls

19. As each fugitive took flight
They called me to what I loathe, so I answered them

20. I am no easy mark if they call from afar
I offer my dowry in the fray, then wheel around

21. The straps of the saddle, never shy
When they threaten me with swords, I overwhelm them

22. With a spirit that fears not the plunge
I did not cast till the people fell in rapture

23. Intoxicated, though they tasted no wine
But it was the sublime that fell between them

24. To finish off whoever neared the abode of eternity
It was as if the heads of the armored men in the eve

25. Were seeds of bitter colocynth strewn on the ground
So the clouds lifted from them and parted

26. While we remained both witness and judge