1. Is it a nocturnal vision or a visitor towards the end of night
Who came to see me, or one who returned to my eyes after being gone?

2. While we're in a land rarely traversed at night
With beautiful Arabian mares and free women

3. Many enemies surround it
Messages come continually from the persistent, well-prepared prince

4. I spend the night distracted as if in a dream
And my gray hair prevents some heedlessness

5. With eyes whose sleepy languor gives pleasure
When night falls with intimacy and directness

6. As if their eyelids are daughters of a small cloud
Whose limit was made early rain

7. So they are together or twins in a meadow
Sent rain for two days and a third was clear

8. So I said to her, how did you find your way to us
When we have valleys and lofty, shaking mountains around us

9. And Jayhan, Jayhan of armies and steeds
And determined, hardy men and strong, unflinching troops

10. Does he see the standards tied around it
As bracelets are bound around wrists

11. When the darkness clothes the land, its
Tent ropes are loosened and the tents laid bare

12. It competes with the clouds in elevation until
Some of its clouds shade it, so it is green and flourishing

13. Travel became difficult, and the land narrowed around us
Until the routes could not be counted

14. But he marched with the might of the army undaunted
By narrow straits or a river full of water

15. When we descend on a town, its expanse is filled by us
And the winding mountain paths around it blaze into commotion

16. Whoever seeks to find us or stop us
A path divides the land to reach us

17. Taking us through enemy territory, the feats of the man
Leading us are unmatched by any feats

18. When people recount their genealogies
They lead back to the best of noble ancestors

19. A man who fills visions when he is seen
Eyes are not sated from looking at him

20. Whoever sees him does not deny his face is timeless
Nor his voice—he is loud and audacious

21. Firm in strength, no argument shakes his resolve
Nor does the powerful man of counsel break his word

22. He is gentle with whoever does not offend
But obstinate when opposed

23. He has a banner that guides the masses as if it were
A bird fluttering on the tip of a spear

24. He humbled a stalwart in the mid-morning
The ground beneath stills from fear of him

25. He dispatched elite campaigns to every border
He is the head guiding us and we are the weapons

26. They were claws and he was above them
Without the place of the head, the claws would fall

27. He separates them for a time and then regroups them
As if gathering gambling arrows scattered about

28. When severity departs from his frown
Another appears, created by his steed

29. Whose hooves strike like untethered racehorses
Their joints emitted sparks and their manes scattered

30. And blazing hooves poured down destruction
Until their constant attacks wearied it

31. As a wild cat becomes soaked from repeated lunges
Their horsemen vie with pride in every battle

32. They are the sincere, burning with purpose
Running through enemy land has thinned them

33. Where the waist wraps are loosened
When dawn cools, their attire is

34. Light armor, sharp swords, and piercing arrows
Quivers whose straps they loose

35. Tanned skins seeped in oil
Left with a beauty the heat made radiant

36. Umar al-Mansur fought with his soul and appointed successor
No helper remains for one who does not aid God

37. With an army whose packs get lost inside its quarters
Wandering visible and the seeker bewildered within it

38. It camped next to enemies, its location unknown to them
In an open land, while being patient with the Romans

39. Confining groups as captives there
As ships were confined at Dhi Majaz

40. Not lodging for years in the spot where lodged
During the vacant campaigns, the armies

41. Their outstretched palms at his door
When spread out are sleeveless

42. Like palm tree heads, supported
By irrigating buckets, streaming from holes

43. When a messenger turns to leave, his replacement nears
As troops pour out continuously from headquarters

44. So excellent the leader of a people when a raider
So excellent the stalwart youth at home and when traveling