1. By your life, the length of this time
Is nothing for man but toil and moan.

2. He remains fearful of the specter of death,
And of illness among his family and sorrow.

3. And the destruction of a people who wrong him,
Like the last one in a wasteland who was not wronged.

4. And I do not see time in its course
Leave a proud or humiliated one.

5. Does my experience of afflictions prevent
Me from fearing the coming of death?

6. Is not the brother of death firmly tied
To me, even if I say he has been delayed?

7. I have a watcher over me who guards me,
So say regarding a chained and indebted man,

8. He lost the adornment of his kingdom,
And he brought out from his fortress one who commits adultery.

9. And pleasures betrayed Abu Malik,
And which man was not betrayed by time?

10. It deposed the kings and destroyed them,
And brought out from his house one in sorrow.

11. And the covenant of youth and its pleasures,
If that has passed, were brought low.

12. And I obeyed one of wisdom, so he led me,
While I used to prevent him from the halter.

13. And I disobeyed my heart after my prime,
And it became evening, and it has no passion.

14. So I have drunk wine; you know
The day of staying and the day of packing.

15. And I drink in the countryside until it is said,
“He has taken long in the countryside and become debased.”

16. And I delight my eyes with singing girls,
Whether bought for marriage or for temporary union.

17. Every white, plump one,
Who has a radiant complexion like cream.

18. Broad of buttocks, when she turns away,
Bearing scratches, pressed together.

19. When they alight with their peers,
And the wine is within the bowels.

20. She busies the rider when she comes,
After sleeping late and at the mid-morning nap.

21. A salifiyya, good is its taste,
It has foam between a cup and a goblet.

22. The two servers pour it for her,
Pure water in the middle of the night from a spring.

23. And an open desert, cold as al-Sadir,
Its halting places encircling ponds.

24. I cut across when its meadows had dried up
With a speedy, sturdy she-camel like a cutting sword.

25. With its saddlecloth it was captured in the mud,
Until the sidestrap had become worn out for it.

26. And the howdah ropes were long upon Jahla,
Like an unruly she-camel made of plaited ropes.

27. So I wore it out and put it through its paces
Upon rocky ground, like the gown of one who patches gowns.

28. It watches from the right side
With its hand, from one who harvests, and is supple.

29. I took an oath by Qays, and how many below him
Of people of foolishness and meanness of gift.

30. And from a reviler whose face is grim
When I affiliate with him, he rejects me.

31. And from a censurer whom blindness has entered
Into his opinions and his judgments.

32. And a neighbor I neighbor who, when I traveled,
Was not to be trusted or assumed faithful.

33. But my Lord has sufficed my loneliness
With praise to God! He has made me reach

34. A trusted brother, his renown lofty,
Bountiful in gifts, generous in favors.

35. Noble in his qualities, of the Banu Mu'awiya,
The most generous of character.

36. If they follow his order they will have guidance,
And if they ask his wealth he will not stint.

37. And if they seek hospitality in his judgment,
He will be hospitable to one who has attained contentment.

38. And he has no bitterness upon his heart,
Nor weakness in any of his bones.

39. And he has no fault with his neighbor
That he would remove like the removal of ticks.

40. He is the giver of the hundred selected,
Adorned like palm trees with pollen clusters.

41. And every pile like the stump of wormwood
That exudes gum when it withers.

42. You see him, when his companions race,
At his side, like a ewe among lambs.

43. They raced with him, so he bent with them,
You would say they were mad and possessed.

44. And they did not catch up with him in his dash,
And he came back from a humiliation reassured.

45. By the life of one bent like the stump of wormwood,
Free, long-necked, reddish in color!

46. With difficulty we carried the boy,
Loathing him, so he let him go, and he prospered.

47. As if the boy were shooting for the pleiades,
A blue lion with claws that grasped.

48. He contended with a wild cow,
To overtake her in a dense thicket.

49. He persisted with the spear until he plunged it
Into a shoulder blade, like the cutting edge of a sword.

50. You see the meat wasted away,
And the fresh meat lifted above the cooking pots.

51. The barefoot circle his gates,
Like the Christians’ circling of the idol’s house.

52. He is the giver of hearing girls,
Between silk and linen.

53. And the petitioner and the hopeful come to him
On a night that is one of affliction.

54. By your house - though some of them, his is
A house of evil, containing no dweller.

55. And no man’s effort has encompassed war
When a detested belly counsels him to settle.

56. You see his care is looking to his waist,
While your care is for raiding, not for fatness.

57. And every year he has a raid
That makes the enemies’ ribs quake, even the ships.

58. Tents that shade the horsemen on the banks
Of Wasit at the ridge of al-Dhakhn.

59. You see in it the old man, out of love for battle,
Trembles like the honor-driven aroused one.

60. So when the people saw in an instant
An opinion they could discern, they entrusted themselves.

61. Not by what the eyes saw
Of despair or certainty did they make their judgment.

62. They contend with glass in its settings,
Agates in a necklace like smoke.

63. They hurry in the markets of the noble horses
At a run when the mirage quivers.

64. So what a pledge for the saying
Of the last part of night! What was its purpose?

65. What they took and what they left
In life of blessings and wealth!

66. And they came offering themselves to a man -
When he earns wealth he does not hoard it.

67. But rather spending it in praise,
He may buy it most precious price.

68. He does not neglect praise or buy it
With reluctance or dawdling.

69. He has the weapons of a glorious man
Who took his time in war until he was wounded.

70. Scale armor like bees which bend
For the rod of a steppe, little in spots.

71. And one who hints, his utterance obscure,
Bare and driving straight ahead like a torrent.

72. And a white coat, placed as a target,
For it there is a leather bag above the abdomen.

73. He may spear the genitals on the day of meeting
With the spear, arresting the vanguard.

74. So this is praise, and I am a man
Who has purposefully cut off from you the tie.

75. I was once a man in Iraq
Of modest character, lengthy in singing.

76. Around me are virgins and their tribes,
And I am no easy prey for whoever promises me.

77. And I was told of Qays, but did not attain him
As they claimed, the best of the people of Yemen.

78. Lofty of pillow, lengthy of ornament,
Huge of arm, spacious in chest.

79. He divides affairs and scrutinizes them
Like the cutting of the silk worker’s gown.

80. So I have come to you seeking what they told me,
And were it not for what they told me, I would not have seen you.

81. So do not deprive me of your abundant gifts,
For I am a man, before you I have not been disgraced.