1. By my having traversed the lands
And crossed the earth, plain and hill,

2. It appeared to me that fate's hand
Has no obstacle in trials still.

3. So beware of jest in this always -
Whoever hears, O she-camel, strays -

4. And know that many a day of days
Bares its grinning teeth in sharp arrays

5. Rarely does the day of evil scratch it -
Neither day of Siffin nor day of Jamal,

6. The heroes knelt to it until it bent
Each determined hero and stalwart gent.

7. I rode turbulent waves, capsizing,
I did not shy from the striking poles.

8. And a youth I rivaled with the cup of woe
At dawn between nights of ignorance whole.

9. Today he revels in its spaces
While the cup for him has rhymes and lays,

10. The beholder sees the visions as gods
Wherever the family's luck sags and nods.

11. So I sailed the wide plain, the sheltering night,
And the darkness, on the restless steed unsaddled,

12. Leaping with us like wild cats
Turning to the remnant of the herd scattered.

13.
I let the riding band drink from the water

14. Of Saraa, pure and freshly drawn,
As if the oil whose scent was bride's perfume,

15. And the meadows dressed it in anklets pale.
The peril of glory is to plunge into love -

16. So tribes fail when failure and loss arrive,
And to hesitate from high goals is lethargy,

17. The ugly fault of men gone slow and passive.
Man's glory is cousin to his strength,