1. The one from Sulaima with lofty dignity has forgiven, so the gloom departed,
And so the guards withdrew, and the signs of entry were removed,

2. I looked towards Wadi al-Ghamr as night was approaching,
The breeze fluttering with the cry of the eagle and yearning soaring high.

3. God has decreed for the youth in some troubles,
Guidance, and in some desires that which must be avoided.

4. Do you not know that when intimacy leads me,
I follow nothing but the right path, and intimacy is misleading?

5. We drank from a serpent in Mount Tawd, its coldness
A cure for sorrow, though it is a lingering affliction.

6. Our nights reproached us, once flourishing, now desolate,
Though in the beginning of time it was inhabited and flourishing.

7. In my rash youth I used to fear
Things that might happen and the turning of fate.

8. And I know that if you cover me once,
From fate I am exposed, my covering stripped away.

9. We were not without protection, for naught stood between us
And harm but the shields of thought.

10. The sword is linked to tyranny, and tyranny to the sword
When the sword believes the sword’s holder falls short.

11. And an affair one is not equipped for
May be taken on if disasters drive one to it.

12. Until we arrived at the open plain, our only refuge
The tall spears, naked blades.

13. News came to me from Ka’b, who has never ceased
To be my right hand and my champion.

14. I will waylay on the plain, then rush
Odes in which blame's deterrent thunders loud,

15. Odes which reciters will proudly chant
And which the playful gallant will delight in.

16. The elder bites his thumb at them in censure
And your livelihoods and tombs are shamed by them.