1. The deserted encampment was not fair in what it did to us,
We did not bid it farewell when we handed it over in sorrow.

2. We came to greet it with reverence and respect,
Yet we did not weep for it out of yearning and sorrow.

3. I thought time would change it,
Had we not bade its melodies farewell, it would have kept us alive.

4. Now I know not whether it shunned us out of denial,
Or whether it deliberately betrayed us out of ingratitude.

5. If that was out of denial, then no wonder,
For the perceptive person denies things at times.

6. It saw the white hair in the mountain passes as dishonorable,
And it remembers us as youths yesterday.

7. Everyone is blinded by weakness to old age
And thinks that the time of gray hair has not yet come.

8. I say as the tears well up in my eyes
Flowing down my cheeks, lips, and chin.

9. I am filled with wonder at what I have witnessed -
Would that the arrows of calamity had missed us!

10. Why do we blame the encampment for this and accuse it
When it is time that has wronged us?

11. Had its quakes not befallen our dwellings,
That denial on your part would have been an act of grace.

12. Alas dear friend from Tha’labah’s clan!
One who does not humble himself before her is disgraced.

13. Arise! The earth is vast for one who dislikes cramped quarters,
And the freeman chooses compatriots and homelands for himself.

14. I find a home wherever I turn,
A home among homes and neighbors among neighbors.

15. How long will I stay in a state of humiliation and deficiency?
How often am I made to swallow the cup of injustice filled up?

16. They treat me with contempt, though their fathers
Were slaves in service and obedience to my forefathers.

17. I am content and satisfied with meager fortune, though had
I been granted my rights, it would have been abundant at the start and end.

18. I am hurt by every misfortune that befalls,
Its vanguard always striking people that dislike me.

19. If he speaks the truth, he counts it among his merits -
Lies, bitterness, slander, and betrayal.

20. O time, if you are awake, then hurry up!
Or are you still asleep whenever you are called, slugabed?

21. Look at inverted conditions and states -
I would not have attained them had I been awake.

22. Destroyed, ravaged, and failed - O fate! Not at all!
You have wronged us severely with tyranny and aggression.

23. You have taken glory and left me with illusions -
Deaf to good and righteousness, blind.

24. Those hoping for spoils from them regard it as gain
Not to return naked to their dwellings.

25. And the flatterer milks their udders to the last drop
Like one milking a goat hoping for some milk.

26. The flattered one lends his ear to his flatterer
Considering it a favor and act of kindness.

27. He knows that the flatterer has come up with lies
And said falsely accused him of disgraceful things.

28. Praise be to God I have never placed any hopes in them
And had to return with a shamed sword.

29. Nor have I found them to be deserving of any favor
So that I asked them for something only to be refused and denied.

30. How could I place my hopes in debauched people
Who suck on the teats of villainy in their childhood?

31. Their noble steed, when seeing a hyena, mistakes it
For a gallant horse racing with flowing mane.

32. Their beggar’s face, contorted with distress,
Scratches their noses and ears as if with salt.

33. The sound of their whip is like an arrow
Piercing deep into the stomach of a fat bellied camel.

34. The generosity of the noble one is for those whose love
He has chosen, openly and in secret, time and again.

35. Every vile person’s generosity rains down
Upon his enemies or those disinclined toward him.

36. O rider who spurs on his mare!
Tyrannical beast roaming the wilderness!

37. Carry my greetings, wherever they have camped,
On land or sea or in mountains and valleys.

38. And say to them in clear eloquent words,
Without anguish on my tongue, what will elucidate things for the people.

39. How long will you neglect what has befallen me
And how often will I rock you back and forth, one by one and together?

40. Will you be content for me to lose hope in you
And seek the living while in desolation?

41. And for me to leave you, with enmity on my part, now cold,
As my enemies have harbored hatred and loathing toward me?

42. May God neither favor us in the desert or town,
Nor care for us among those under His protection.

43. Nor distinguish between us and our enemies in His kingdom -
Those He has kept safe from us and those He has saved from our grasp.

44. I wish I knew if our ships were equipped
And our anchors weighed from the coasts of Bahrain.

45. The next morning, they were anchored on the shores of a king
From Himyar, or the Kahlan old men that remained.

46. The tribes would come in batches to ask about me,
Only to find my eloquence a mark of nobility.

47. If I remain silent and withhold the news from them
Out of tribal zeal, it will bring me dishonor and diminishment.

48. If I say I had wealth that fate did away with
In relentless victories that will not be stemmed.

49. It will be said: Every separation has a cause -
Tell us the details. What is the issue?

50. If I say: The chieftains of my tribe are the cause for this.
I did not see this statement as gracious.

51. By God! He obeyed those who were brazen.
He did not side with or listen to the malicious.

52. After wealth departs, how can one call him generous
When deprivation has emaciated his soul?

53. I came to him hopeful for some slight support
Only to meet with refusal and denial.

54. In his love I found injury and hatred
As he turned away loathing me intensely.

55. One who has heartburn douses it with water.
What will one whose heartburn is from water do?

56. There is no blame upon one who speaks the truth,
No sin or crime that necessitates it.

57. A people will not prevail among whom a hungry dog lives
While the mighty lion dies of thirst.

58. As for one who says desist from rhymed prose, know that
You have heard this before - had you paid heed, you would have awoken.

59. Glory has become buried in the tombs. Arise
To resurrect and to cry and mourn for it!

60. After the pillar of the faith, there is no king
In whom the poets inscribe their poetry collections.

61. Woe to you, mother of enmity and favors! Would that
Time could call on you for condolences and help!

62. I said: We have not seen among its misdeeds, at any time,
What we now see in its son.

63. Resoluteness, determination, true might, protection,
Perfect qualities of patience, wisdom exceeding that of Luqman!

64. O excellence! The prayer of a close relative calls you as he feels
The burning of injustice in his heart’s core.

65. You are the one whose awe left enemies
Silent, confused by anything you undertook.

66. Glory and noble nature prevent you from
Being called on for the youths’ entertainment.

67. O you who sees spending wealth as everlasting gains
And withholding it as clear loss!

68. You are a towering palm tree I longed for,
Its branches extending over branches.

69. In your hands lies the rain clouds of generosity
That pours leaves and twigs on people.

70. I seek refuge for your glory should I be distraught
And you would recognize me by the changing fortunes of time.

71. You were born for glory - fathers that dignified
The Abyssinians and Persians and Qahtanite Arabs through ancestry.

72. A people who avenged the trench, captured
Umar, conquered Dhu al-Taj, struck down Sapor

73. And made Kisra's sanctuary violable. They killed
Bahman and plundered Mahran's citadels.

74. They were mountains for Najd, stabilizing it
Against tremors, should it quiver and shake.

75. So when they traveled from its terrain, it was shaken,
Transformed by their absence into quaking and defeat.

76. Their steeds in Bahrain's settlements
Trailed banners and knightly steeds.

77. Had they not descended on its terrain, it would have seen
Rabi'ah flee like wretched Kays and Makhzum.

78. But they strengthened its foundations and averted from it
Humayy bin 'Abd Shams and the guardians.

79. Just as their predecessors had averted coercive powers:
Iyad, Hulwan, Ghassan, and Jilan.

80. Pearls, musk, rubies and coral!