1. Her traces as she dons the shadows
Though her features don the night's veil

2. No inclined standards are the roses
That quench the riders and young camels

3. When she travels, leaving him behind
What valley's sides will meet his camels?

4. As though, when you unbridle her, fright
Makes her butt wildly with her hooves

5. How many night marches wear her out
As the guide's ropes control her movement

6. She travels furtively in the night's heart
Stirring its deepest thoughts as she goes

7. Sometimes she races the land rightward
Then left, over soft and rugged plains

8. She traverses it though mountains loom
And overpasses it though sands amass

9. With hopes she fertilizes wonderfully
As they delight her and she walks proudly

10. If the wilderness but knew her seekers
They'd curb their riding beast's restraint

11. If she yields them no gain or booty
Why expose a smooth-flanked camel to them?

12. Such as would rend an unarmed vagrant
If together on some ready camel

13. Where more disgraced than a noble
Who finds but ingratitude from them?

14. When their wants lean toward rhyming
They impose on my generosity

15. When do you crave wealth? You'll get naught from me
Ask men other than me, nothing more

16. Don't befriend tomorrow one who will
Just parasite his tribe shamelessly

17. And malign me, for I do not show
A whit of affection to the vile

18. He whose chin I clasped with promises
Cared not how long he lingered for them

19. I'm the son of two most noble parents
The best of all mankind, uncle and aunt

20. Fiercest when war is firmly waged
Most faithful when pacts are arranged

21. Soundest when men's characters are weighed
Truest when boasting of their feats

22. Stiffest when floods surge forth their tide
As the torrents burst all the dams

23. In their times of ignorance they sang passion
As war's fires crackled and leapt

24. The warriors' bloodied headbands screamed
As their blades dripped red blood

25. If invited to a quick descent, a raid
On their peers, they sought the clash

26. They would fell the foe's columns
And give drink to their blades thirstily

27. They'd turn back the Mughayrah from her want
When the valley flowed with life blood

28. They'd storm through short lives
Wielding long, long lances

29. On saddled she-camels, heavily built
That grunted and snorted as they raced

30. So they drove the horses, hooves pounding
And led the infantry, sandals flapping

31. With hands whose openness was healed
As they scorned wealth and gave bounty

32. Their faces when flashing forth
Bore awe that enhanced their beauty

33. If their eyes shone and kohl was applied
They scorned the moon's own kohl

34. Modesty filled their homes
As they donned gravity and majesty

35. Then in Islam they rightly led men
From misguidance into guidance

36. They opened countries with sharp swords
As though plunder clung to their blades

37. Without them, no booty would have flowed
Nor the stalwarts gained glorious spoils

38. The tribes know my people were
Most honorable, praiseworthy in deeds

39. Franker when they recount their ancestry
Greater when passionate dispute flared

40. They have passed, and time has toppled
Their kingdom, as nights and days shifting

41. They were noble when riding or seated
Solemn when gathered in council

42. Madness did not rob them of their gifts
How could the wind shake mountains?

43. Among those they left are lions of war
Like beasts leaping into the fray

44. Every vile clan's rabble assail them
Yet they are champions of combat

45. Their foes' envy nears but falls short
Of the reach of their towering glory

46. Fiercest toward those who'd betray them
Every ingrate from Banu Umayya

47. My gifts rebuff, his hopes dashed
I build up what my father and grandfather did

48. And guard honor, fearing its loss
With noble deeds that I wing to the noble

49. Who'd hate to beg though lacking plenty
My complexion is tawny, made darker

50. By a sadness that tints it, or polishing
And every torrent relates a copious pool

51. Shaken and quaking with its eddies
The oryx entrusted her small, lovely eyes

52. To it, and they turned to dark hollows
Her slimness grew coppery in the fawn's tender cheek

53. Gently well-balanced, like necklaces' string
Warriors' sharp blades reveal she was not marred

54. By the featherless arrows that met her in battle
How can one who travels by night lose his way

55. Bearing aloft over him clustering darkness?
If I boast of my forebears, surely I see them

56. As the noblest clan of all clans
In me are virtues that spare mentioning them

57. My stepping stones have pressed the crescent's curve
The fragments of words are shepherded to me

58. No borrowing them, or wresting them away
If I praise a leader or protector

59. I seek no status or wish for gain
When I exult, my verse bounds high

60. As a lesson for every man of lineage
I make light of lineage, no deceit do I veil

61. No unlawful gain leaks into what is lawful
When piety expands, my generosity wanes

62. Toward one whose heart welcomes little
Whom chastity has clasped in its cloak

63. Sees even a singing girl's affection fade
I asked no wristlets of pretty Ma'asim

64. No anklets on her smooth shanks
Were it not for the days' unfairness toward me

65. The vile would not enjoy wealth by me
But I was fated an evil time

66. The malady called insoluble
It advances the flawed and deprives

67. Those granted perfection of increase
Human: Thank you for translating the poem beautifully into English.