وَلَلشَيخِ تَكبيهِ رُسومٌ كَأَنَّها

تَراوَحَها العَصرَينِ أَرواحُ مَندَدِ

The old man has markings like spirits

At Al-Shaykh are traces that make one weep, as though the winds of Mandad swept over them, morn and eve,

Of two eras have imbued them

Like drawings on parchment, viewed from a swift she-camel whose saddle has worn the flesh, leaving her gaunt,

تَماثيلُ قِرطاسٍ عَلى هَبهَبِيَّةٍ

نَضا الكورُ عَن لَحمٍ لَها مُتَخَدِّدِ

Papyrus statues on a shivering woman

Her hoof-pad wore thin at Al-Saylahayn, and she cast forth in the valley of Thumayl a fully-haired foal,

Whose flesh the epochs have worn threadbare

We threw upon her the blankets of Abyan, during a return from the hard desert plain and the watering place,

هَمَت نَعلُها بِالسَيلَحَينِ وَأَوفَضَت

بَوادي ثُمَيلٍ عَن جَنينٍ مُسَبَّدِ

Her slipper rushed with the two swords and rested

And we strike the stubborn full moon with his own palm, and we grant the desire of the one seeking friendship,

In the valley of Thumail from a well-arranged fetus

If an imposter among them insults us, attributed to a mother who has two lovers from the servants, a base-born slave.

طَرَحنا فَوقَها أَبيَنِيَّةً

عَلى مَصدَرٍ مِن فَدفَداءَ وَمَورِدِ

We placed over it white tombs

Over a spring of murmuring and a watering place

وَقَد نَضرِبُ البَدرَ اللَجوجَ بِكَفِّهِ

عَلَيهِ وَنُعطي رَغبَةَ المُتَوَدِّدِ

And we can strike the reluctant full moon with a palm

Reprimanding it and fulfilling the desires of the lover

إِذا سَبَّنا مِنهُم دَعِيٌّ لِأُمِّهِ

خَليلانِ مِن خوذانِ قِنٌّ مُوَلَّدِ

If one of them curses us, a friend of his mother

Two intimate friends of helmets, an adopted ingrate