1. Shall I rise or set, O Sa'id?
Shall I increase my provisions or be in want?

2. Fate has diverted me from my destinies,
So my success in them is muddled and slow.

3. I see deprivation nearer when it is far,
And success farther when it is near.

4. Countries have tossed me from country to country,
As if I were a vagrant among them.

5. And at Sajor, belonging to Thu'al ibn 'Amr,
Were gallant youths, excellent game.

6. When the doves cooed there the youths said,
For yearning, "Where did Al-Walid lodge?"

7. And where can he who is hostage to fate,
Wretched in its events, banished, abide?

8. Time left me among people
Whose faces and hands were of iron.

9. They wear handsome robes that are white
But their acts are ugly and black.

10. They have the morals of mules, and every day
Some new evil trait occurs to one of them.

11. And mostly when asked they reply
With a promise that means refusal.

12. A promise - but from their frowning faces
One knows not if it is promise or threat.

13. If Labid observed them he would weep
Over the successor whom Labid mourns.

14. Would that the ordainments had not been ordained
And there had been no fortunes and no fates,

15. That we might see who at morning and evening
Would possess this retinue and servants!

16. Had wealth been a noble destiny
Christians and Jews would have missed it.

17. But time is a time of vileness,
Contention for authority does what it will.

18. It favors over some ill-omened people,
And disfavors over some fortunate folk.