1. Do you not wonder at the doves, as they flew,
Then stopped by the exemplars of valor?

2. Informing us the clan was gathering,
At the remains of an abode after remoteness and separation.

3. So I said, as my heart fluttered for the birds when they flew,
“May God, God is Opener of all doors, grant good fortune.”

4. And it stirred sorrows and lament within me,
The melodies of a land made new and devoid of companions.

5. For my people when all my people intended,
While I was in a place abundant with clear meadows.

6. The dwellings of Saʿd vanished, so they were still,
With no fire, and no howling guard dog.

7. So the valleys of Aus, and Al-A‘waz all,
And the gardens, even to Maqazih.

8. As though there had not been, between them,
The taking of a resolve from an estranged and departing group.

9. And Bahrat with its poured water, and Dufail,
And Suwait with lodges calling.

10. When the tribe and the protected, made easy, were among us,
And we were in a state of good living.

11. With a throat whose veins were cooled among us,
Brandishing the perils of piercing blades.

12. And when glory and elevation were our ornament,
Against overwhelming conquest and prolonged domination.

13. Days of ease Mahmoud dwelt in and recited,
And their dawns in days without a returning dawn.

14. We would defeat the attacking parties among us,
When the claim of raiders amongst the people multiplied.

15. As though ʿAwf ibn Saʿd had not been, and the sons of Hasher
Had not been the tall, towering heroes.

16. And an allowed clan from Ghuwayth as though they
Were lions, in a jungle of wrestling beasts.

17. And a living clan, Jabir, had not protected with them,
A night the like of sharp swords.

18. Crafted for determined striking, leaders
Handling the reins of racing steeds.

19. For them is a present they do not neglect and a caller
Like a torrent’s flow plunging with burdens.

20. So if my people have become their abodes
Intentions of a possessor of ravines for some to cast down.

21. Then my people were not supplicating, humiliated,
Or let down in grave affairs.

22. And they knew I did not demolish what they built,
And I did not uproot their pillars with provocations.

23. I was not one to seek out their slips,
And I do not transgress in them, I am no spy.

24. Rather I blame whoever faults them,
And I am one who praises them with praise of one loyal.

25. So convey to the clan of Saʿd ibn Bakr my reprimand,
A messenger of one whose affection is sincere.

26. That the honored house has become in its place,
And the Prophet’s tomb is not transient.

27. Remaining until the trumpet is blown twice,
And another, then each straining worker is recompensed.

28. For by my life I do not sell them tomorrow,
For a valley or Shayban in the sale of one tossing blame.

29. Nor one day will I buy the neighborship of a clan,
With the neighbors of Sidq from Quraysh of scattered sands.

30. Come to the two ruins of Qays and Khandaf,
And the plain of Nejd and the sincere chests.

31. And do not toss me into infirm Quda‘ah,
Quda‘ah which has assumed the lower part of ankles.

32. They refused to be, from Ma‘add, an invented lineage,
Recently, for we know those attributions.

33. By my life, if Quda‘ah has parted
On other than ancestors of clear saying—

34. I will make us needless of an inconsistent companion,
And every taster and viceroy fanning.

35. We are, and our Master Rabi‘ah, a people
Who live on barrenness from every disputant.

36. O Banu ‘Illah we are not among us cowards,
Leapers striking the pillar of wrestling.