1. For one with a ruin like an ornamented book
Whose covenant between the cross and pulpit passed

2. A writer leaned over it with his implements
And its events are sharply apparent to the eye

3. For Asma, when you desire to meet her, she is
Like one with a new robe, from a howling desert wolf, radiant

4. For him a little rest from the torment of the crucifixion
And if he advances with spearmen he is graceful

5. And I stood there, lest it become apparent to a questioner
And can the deaf, eternally silent, understand my speech?

6. So I stayed as if habituated to the wine
Intoxicated by pure mingled wine

7. Like the scent of the perfumed aloe in the night, its fragrance
Steams in a polished ewer

8. What makes you weep over fanciful symbols
Emptiness like the shreds of a right sleeve torn to pieces?

9. Do not announcements come to the people of Ma’rib
As they have come to people of the lowlands and stony plains

10. That we have forbidden our women the litters
And we have killed those who came to us with shredded robes

11. ‘Isa the messenger informs them, and its evils
Two parties of Ma’add: Temim and Mu’arriq

12. And our stand is not in the house of caprice
And our lodging is on the glittering hillside

13. When we climb the back of rebellion, it is as if
White eggs are piled on our zeal

14. Since the morning when they came against us with their throng
In the desolate wilderness of Faylaq

15. As if ostriches laid eggs atop their heads
With the ink of the quill or ink from a sprinkling vessel

16. We hemmed them in truthfully with the edges of our blades
Until they despaired of life and scattered

17. As if a resting place for steeds and a halt
Where we met against palms and forearms

18. As if they were gazelles in rows
Assailed by stupidity, possessing daggers

19. As if the scattering of their eminent heads
Were a hot southern wind in arid, scorched land

20. From the morning until night enveloped them
And none escaped but every smooth-cheeked fleer

21. And every fleet one with slackened reins
Like the bounding gazelle freed of restraints

22. So they cast to us the stores of every noble
And lavish camel, as if it were the ribs of a siege tower

23. Broached, woven by David, their minting
Like seeds of kingcups, split open

24. Who then will have a garment rent by our lances
And who will be naked, outpacing, and prevail?

25. And whoever calls out among us lives in misery
And whoever is not tempted by passions is freed

26. And Umm Buhayr amidst our contention
Whenever news reaches her, she scratches and shrieks

27. We left Buhayr where its grandfather crawled
And among us are horsemen, unrestrained

28. And were it not for the darkness of night, ‘Amir
Would never have come to Ja’far with his coat unripped

29. With a blow that makes the birds fold up their wings
And a stab like the mouths of yawning pouches

30. Our glory is not in a shoreland valley
But a sea within which serpents hiss

31. That tears apart diving ospreys within it
Whenever an adept sailor navigates it and sinks

32. And the glory of Ma’add was above highlands
We were preceded in it as they climbed and we climb

33. When Indian blades are our rods
With them we manage every matter and separate

34. We scrape glowing coals with swords across our faces
If our feet slip at a narrow point

35. So you faulted us for killing horsemen
But the saying of an enraged horseman is upon me and my speech

36. You rushed two arguments against us
And what the Merciful wills He knots and unties

37. He Who breaks the mighty bone-setter, and whatever
He wills of the matter, He unites and separates

38. He Who admitted al-Nu’man to a house, whose sky
Was the gullets of swords, after the house at Musadiq

39. And after Muzaynib's ordeal, it was ravaged
And Ma’add inclined, after Muharraq inclined

40. Majestic is He, the Haven, Who wards off His enemy
Like the shoulder of lightning from a brilliant, radiant cloud