1. The bay horse's forehead gleamed
Like fire amidst the blondish dunes.

2. Amer's young warriors kindle and stoke it
With flint and fractured bow.

3. The riders' eyes strained toward it.
We paused at Ramah for a look.

4. I shook the whip's thongs and off they leapt,
The shy colts, shod and caparisoned.

5. "Gently now, mount, for our campfire
Burns between two springs," I said.

6. "When shall we meet? Without that, warriors
Whose tents the cannonball has struck..."

7. Sister whose hands wield the sword hilt in battle,
Were it not for the foe's eyes I'd not have left you.

8. Shall I, then, raid without you
Through darkness that the dawnslices pierce?

9. Shall I court the enemy where so often
Your tribe's blood dyed their spearshafts red?

10. The shouters' clamor startles me. Before us
Judged Kinda's clans in Hijaz.

11. I'll prod my mount to your side
Through a pass the dusky fox traverses.

12. How often I shook the night's hem to you
And rode the steed of dawn's first light!

13. For your life I'd ransom Ma'ishar's virgins,
Who denied Qudha'ah its superior numbers.

14. The doe of the valley's clefts is wary.
The delicate gazelle's aware.

15. Where the springs gush, five does stand out
Like five lines etched against the hill.

16. I reached them while the riders bowed down to fate
And the deer knelt by the crag's twisting path.

17. I halted to ask after you, and in their eyes
Stirred nostalgia and longing's sadness.

18. As if the hillside ruins traces
Were shreds of your unburied corpses.

19. You left Syria darkened when injustice
Spread, and who'll help the just man now?

20. You peeled its coat with unsheathed swords
And felled Jibrin's castle with your blades.

21. Shamma' smiles, wearing on her slopes
Cloaks of radiant clouds.

22. A tribe whose fortress is the sword, whose steed
Sinks fetlock-deep in ash-grey sand.

23. They scorn the camel litters' swaying motion,
Unaware the goal is the lionesses' bellies.

24. By your might faded a Bedouin strife
That stirred up dissension like snapped lances.

25. You took Antioch from the Romans, who
Raised battlements against Alexander.

26. For armies, Mu'izz al-Din, your advice suffices—
A torrent bridling both its banks with rivers.

27. Their shoulders felt your chargers' hooves and shied,
Casting their little ones down like ripe dates.

28. They poured down as the rain clouds shed their bounty
Before the virgins' eyes at daybreak.

29. You see the brave glance sideways in the fray
Beneath the visor at the coward's eyes.

30. The swords carved up its lanes,
The steeds stumbled over the rubbish heaps.

31. Justice's banner was raised through its corners;
The lion bowed to the delicate gazelle.

32. From you, fingers dripped cool water
And left the scant flow heaping up in plenty.

33. They met your genrosity and saw
The vestige of kindliness on the shining brow.

34. They saw the height of Saq's honor that he built
Like the noble man's generosity—such pride!

35. Offices matching the glory of a horseman
No Mundhirid grasped all alone.

36. My friend, departure nears. Draw near at sunset,
A wen will provide plenty for the needy

37. And tug the bridle to a youth
Of slender hands like a Kisrawi prince,

38. For the horizons know I travel
And race the lively, splendid steeds

39. And speak a discourse whose parts I won't allow
Unless they're rare and carefully selected.

40. In the nomad's speech is a roughness
Unlike the refined man's gentleness.

41. To you the noble man appeals and guards
Against the dangers that befall.

42. The earth's your land, the wilds your worshippers.
Your word rules eons' differing epochs.

43. So time poured in to you after its passing
To see the flourishing of your late age.

44. For through it Islam trails its hem
Capering, prancing like the prancing stud.

45. Indeed, of grandeur's nobility
You reached what none attained, stored what none stored,

46. Attained the peak of glory never matched
By Choesroe or aimed for by Caesar.

47. So when the lowly seek your refuge, they see
On the bright brow kindness' vestige.

48. They see the height of Isaac's honor that he built
Like generosity—such pride for him!

49. Positionsmatching the glory of a horseman
No Mundhirid grasped all alone.

50. My friend, departure nears.Draw near at sunset.
A wen will provide plenty for the needy