1. My friend, why do you shun your brother
And cause him pain by avoiding what pleases him?

2. Don't you know that in adversity I endure
With patience when my strength fails me?

3. The daughter of Mu'awiya taunts me for being seen
Powerless in the face of what has thwarted me.

4. Yet she is ignorant that I aspire to greatness
And it gives life to one whose fortune has abandoned him.

5. I disdain what enfeebles the mighty in their pursuits,
To me the sweet and bitter of life are the same.

6. There is no honor unless a man bears himself
Upon a plan by which his name endures forever,

7. And plunges into a fray to be avoided,
So if he perishes, it is said "Alas for him!"

8. And he who takes the back of the eminent in battle
As his resting place, the belly of the vulture is his grave.

9. And I needs must make an Umayyad leap
Where the bold pass the night and the sword makes dawn.

10. When my blade weeps blood in the throes of war
Or makes me laugh while the wolf mourns its loss.