1. O dove of the valley near the wise elder,
How does the morning breeze whisper to you?

2. The ostriches do not tread on you wearily,
Trampling their yellow hennaed legs.

3. The wind greeted you in sorrow, and the soil
Suckled the dripping clouds' downpour.

4. Many a Bedouin girl, alluring and slender,
Disturbs the folds of her billowing cloak,

5. Casting glances around you with the eyes of does
When they anticipate the knots of tribulation.

6. Alas! How has passion afflicted her glance
When my arrows went wild against my fighters?

7. Did her stature not suffice, erect with spears,
That she should assail me with a casting glance?

8. She listened to the slanderers after soberness
While I refute the prattle of the calumniators.

9. If only she had shared with us her imagination
The morning after she revealed the page of separation.

10. She laughs at the lovesick one crying over Sibāʾ
Yearning for his few days long gone.

11. O brother Ḥanẓala son of Mālik,
Struggle for me against the sister of Wāʾil.

12. The blonde gazelle was not adorned
Except on the forearm of the resolute hunter.

13. Vengeance is not forgotten by one who bears a grudge,
So how could you overlook the long travails?

14. If I do not startle her people with some youths
Who walk with the gait of lions brandishing swords,

15. Paralyzing them with brawny arms
Collaring necks with chains,

16. Then no sword blades were ever unsheathed
For battle by the excellent scabbards of my heroes.

17. Though the guard was asleep, her procession marched on
With their long trains trailing in the darkness.

18. They passed by scorched encampments, scenting
The ruins with perfumes of musk-pod trees.

19. They seek youths like the gleam of swords, resting
Their arms on well-stuffed saddles.

20. So she deprived the eyelids of sleep, which forms
Crescents that gleam white at the joints.

21. Stop imagining this specter which
Wisdom cloaked in the robe of confusion.

22. Poetry without a noble theme emerges
From a mind debilitated by falsehood―

23. From a crowd with arrogant leaders
Of white faces, equal in rank.

24. Their deeds point to their lineage
And generous gifts reveal noble dispositions.

25. So turn away from eminence with arms
Whose fingertips are dyed red with blood.

26. Raid your enemies with continuous assaults
That seem like the raids of ferocious jackals.

27. How often they halted war while it boiled
With the clashing of weapons at the thick of battle!

28. They fulfilled their vows on the day of turmoil
To make the channels run with the blood of heroes.

29. For Hāshim is the best of the clan of Fihr
And they are the best of mankind and noblest of tribes.

30. Allah has a House whose pillars
Anchor the poles of warfare at the throats of passes.

31. The peg of Manāf was driven in
Upon the shoulders and clavicles of enemies.

32. Can the flow of superiority decrease its roar?
Glory does not reek with rottenness.

33. How he sets hopes grazing toward him
In the footsteps of an obstructing ancestor!

34. He remains sleepless as night drapes its shadow,
Preoccupied with wakefulness instead of rest.

35. If dawn illuminates, it flutters his breast
With shuddering determination and zeal.

36. The valiant man will be struck on his intellect
By sparks from the steel links in his armor.

37. Beneath what draws his gaze upward
Is a battlefield that dyes the feet of wrestlers.

38. O best of all those whose mention
Thrills the consciences of every assembly!

39. The month of Allah has come to you benign,
Blessed in its days and nights.

40. It brings you reward while the dew nourishes you
With abundant blessings from fountains.

41. So let a flood pounce on the watering places of wild cows―
Good fortune takes wing through the lineages.

42. I have in the regions of Iraq an arena
Vast, beloved, and most fertile.

43. I have a gift of hospitality with which I cast
My gaze in the wake of pouring clouds.

44. I turn toward it with praise
That makes teeth shine through fingers.

45. Radiant one―if she melted she would mold
Idols from her flowing tresses.

46. If I were satisfied, her transmission would adorn
The speech of early Arabs with it.