1. I find you bid the child farewell and become
Hostile to them after being unjust.

2. Yet I never buy ignorance with wisdom,
Nor an ignoramus with my homeland and rebels.

3. The idle blame leisure when they see
All that leads to leisure guided.

4. I came to Hurayth, visiting with no ill intent,
Yet Hurayth was ungenerous with gifts.

5. By your life! He was nothing like the stout one in valor
In appearance or his courageous father.

6. When a friend visits him one day, it’s as though
He saw a lion in his den with lion cubs.

7. I visited a man before him in a time
Better than you in soul and parentage.

8. One day I was his guest, so he brought my seat near
And tied me to the saddle like a captive.

9. He entertained me at night with a girl,
So I was endowed with better than you, O quenched flame!

10. In her were no praises or eulogies
Except those for Abu Qudamah, supported.

11. A man who, were he to call out to the sun, it would take off its veil
Or to the crescent moon, it would shed its ornaments.

12. In the morning he is like a polished sword
On the backs of patterns for him and pillows.

13. He sees stinginess as bitter and giving as though
He takes pleasure in fresh, cool water.

14. No coward or deserter has hope of safety
From Abu Ashbal when he attacks with his cavalry.

15. More forbearing than Qays and bolder than Muqaddam
In the face of fears when he sets out attacking.

16. He sees all those under thirty as an easy target
And charges when the foe is but one.

17. When I saw the journey had become long
And he despaired from the prolonged wandering,

18. I clad the camel litters with she-camels that seemed
Like a bellowing cow separated from the herd.

19. With her eyes, she startled the flock and hastened
To cut me off from the distant caravan.

20. She paws the ground like an ostrich ruffling its feathers
And sends the wild cows racing in panic.