1. Give my praises as much excuse as you can
I will wash my eyes with exaltation from the tears of poetry

2. I imagined it a disgrace to one with dignity
The people prolonged their threats with harshness

3. You were right, but a noble woman
Gets no life except under some affliction

4. My time turned a blind eye to its sins
Until the time the sword can be drawn from its scabbard

5. And I noticed, made wise by the injustice of events
That my two channels, though it seemed to seek ruin

6. So I was like musk that gave off its scent when pounded
Though its pieces were scattered by the percussive blow

7. O sons of Dārim, when you changed, you changed
Your turbans on the day of abhorrence to wine

8. For dwellings and cities became too confining for the worshipper
No pasture was left for the noble and free

9. You tied up your steeds with the ropes of homes
While the horses of foes run in every battle

10. When you kindled the fire of war, its fuel
The white dwellings and brown origin obscure

11. I guaranteed you would return it praiseworthy
Frightening the wild beasts with gifts red and fallow

12. I am the man who does not cast hopes to the wind
Or gain safety except through alarm

13. I do not court the company of scoundrels with praise
Even if dire need forces me to wander as an exile

14. I disdained the wealth of the stingy man because
I saw riches with humiliation a type of poverty

15. The special way of life without which are misfortune and misery
And the honor of contentment above the kingdom of Bani al-Naḍr

16. I was patient though patience is honor and humiliation
And this is the time when patience is praised with victory

17. I will storm the honored quarters of the scoundrel folk
With a gap-toothed lass containing the wanderer’s vanished glory and pride

18. With a sarcastic mocker who loses his chest to the spear
When what is between the doubt and the chest flows out

19. He has clouds pouring down destruction when the heroes are routed
And a steady succession of heroes in the champions’ thrust

20. As if the neighing of the folk before his onslaught
Were a downpouring cloud or the dew of the full moon