1. Have you not lost passion as you aged?
Yes, and you ceased pursuing girls,

2. Gray hair made you into an old man
Who converses with bright-eyed gazelles.

3. If I get angry, I do not get angry like a coward,
Nor do I submit to misfortunes.

4. Nor did I entrust the gallantry of youth
To a tenderhearted, soft-bodied lad.

5. I am a son of war; it raised me as a child
Until I grew up and my milk teeth fell out,

6. I took on challenges and challenges took me on
But I did not falter and my strength did not fail.

7. Perhaps your souls will return to you
When I prepare and my love is kindled,

8. And that is when the time for peace is past
But before then avoid provoking me!

9. Evil grows until smoke rises from it
Though the patching of rifts commands the disobedient.

10. Keep some of your words to yourselves, for if
You anger me you will regret provoking me.

11. I do not advise the king out of ignorance
Rather I advise against the enemies.

12. If I forgive my brother’s many faults
And he gives gifts to the fabricators of scandals,

13. I do not boast to my partisans around
My lord though troubles have befallen him.

14. Souls are no use when your slander
Is spread by the talebearers’ mouths.

15. The progeny of your partisans desired
For me the power of the Almighty and the Most High.

16. When you recall the deeds of the house of Nafra,
Be charitable with righteous hands.

17. Their defending of the origins, firmly,
Their rising to bear the blood-prices,

18. Their healing of the wounds of affairs until
What was scattered comes together again,

19. Their taking a share for every protector -
Many will benefit if benefactors are lacking.

20. They sacrificed themselves for the proteges
And gained through their spears the glory of martyrdom,

21. When pretense and boasting disappear
You will find our swords strike like deadly poison

22. Without deceit or cunning when
The true nature of the vile hypocrites appears.

23. We have a mother who rarely complains and grieves
Like the mother lion who conceals her pain,

24. Wombs are jealous for our children until
The bellies of the virtuous women birth them.

25. I see a people whose children are born in droves
Like lambs born in the meadows’ burrows.

26. If I wished, I could speak words
Against their famous symbols.

27. No husband of an unchaste wife would want
His tribe to build life for him.

28. But I make some of my words obscure
With uneven meter and faulty rhyme,

29. And I dislike it if my people blame me
For satirizing the sensitive and spiteful.

30. When I take aim with satire at a people
I link it with disparaging verses.

31. Avoid my harm as birds avoid
The talons of the hunting hawk.

32. Tomorrow I will be vigilant, slipping away
From you, sparkling with claws and canines,

33. Forever tossing and turning, unsheathing
My reddish eyelids, truthful in menace,

34. We have the two mountains since ancient ‘Aad,
Where nobility and generosity gather,

35. Up to the Euphrates’ shore where Layla camped,
A land neighboring settlements.

36. We roamed it with every resolute hero
And every firm defender of sanctuary.

37. Ours is Al-Bat’ha since ancient times
When the honored settlements are recalled.

38. The lords of settlements when calamities strike
And the people of glory and steadfastness.

39. They prevented Al-Nu’man when he
Was fired with icy ambition.

40. They crippled his army until
Its fleeing remnants sought aid at the Euphrates.

41. When we saw the people had abandoned
Its inviolable sanctuary to the aggressors,

42. We protected it from his evil
And we were its firm guardians.

43. We did not panic when disaster befell us
Nor leave our people to the killers.

44. Ours are its first gates, and it has inclined
Towards us against every attacker,

45. To the unerring archer with every fine bow
Whose arrows fall short of his,

46. Who pursues the fleeing, nearly parallel
Except for valleys that converge then hide

47. Like the dwelling-places of beasts.
I traveled a land where snakes slither submissively

48. Like unsheathed swords lying prone,
The shelter of deliverance is like a tablet

49. Scrawny-bellied like the armor of a warrior,
It crept from between two mountains it had dwelt in

50. Among twisted valleys in the barren wasteland,
Turning in the bellies of every lost valley,

51. Broad-caverned for those turning about,
Now here, now there with twists and bends

52. Leaning where the fearful sands incline,
Pregnant when they fear no wind,

53. Their udders like the palms of milkmaids,
And when the winds blow they are startled does

54. Hearing with pricked ears, attentive,
With bellies lined - their intestines are cures

55. For the most penetrating colic,
They have young who stir others

56. And they are joy to the throats of singers,
The mother hen shelters them with water

57. When the one entering startles the chicks,
She pecks a gullet then continues

58. With the thirst of the winds, suffering clear distress,
She mocks the wind, resisting

59. With her wing in a land with no plants,
Does this elucidate your father’s command until

60. You understand what you were ignorant of?
There the party of Qays will elucidate it,

61. For venerable fathers, sanctified mothers,
For my love Umm ‘Amr

62. And Zuhrah, from the humpbacked old women,
And Fakihah, never failing or weakening,

63. Her husbands were lords of the clan,
For every valiant son of Nafra,

64. Great of spirit, confronting enemies,
And Qawar when adversaries quarrel

65. As to the glories, the years gone by,
To the heroes of Saba whose growths

66. Were seemly, none knot-necked,
And whoever asks the rescuers about me,

67. My fathers the protectors, clan of protectors
Indeed, every valiant kinsman of Aman,

68. My father the protector from Nafra, unconquered,
When you recall the deeds of the house of Nafra

69. Be generous with your good hands,
With their standing firmly for the origins

70. And bearing the burdens of blood-prices,
And their healing of the wounds of affairs until

71. What was scattered comes together,
And their taking shares for every protector -

72. Many will benefit if benefactors are lacking,
They sacrificed themselves for the proteges

73. And gained through their spears the glory of martyrs.
When pretense and boasting disappear

74. You will find our swords strike like deadly poison,
With no deceit or cunning when

75. The true nature of the vile hypocrites appears.
We have a mother who rarely complains and grieves

76. Like the mother lion who conceals her pain,
Wombs are jealous for our children until

77. The bellies of virtuous women give birth to them.
I see a people whose children are born in droves

78. Like lambs born in the meadows’ burrows,
If I wished, I could speak words

79. Against their famous symbols,
No husband of an unchaste wife would want

80. His tribe to build life for him,
But I make some of my words obscure

81. With uneven meter and faulty rhyme,
And I dislike it if my people blame me

82. For satirizing the sensitive and spiteful.
When I take aim with satire at a people

83. I link it with disparaging verses,
Avoid my harm as birds avoid

84. The talons of the hunting hawk.
Tomorrow I will be vigilant, slipping

85. From you, sparkling with claws and canines,
Forever tossing and turning, unsheathing