1. The meadows are in bloom, the canals overflow,
Sheltering you, gaining merits not lightly won;

2. Backing you, enough backing to attain your goal -
Honor and resolve no faint heart has claimed.

3. Do not fret if they took some small spoils By guile did the lions unsheathe to strike.
In their cowardice they chose to deceive,

4. When they had no might against your brave troops.
Rouse yourselves! God willed your heedlessness

5. To allow fate's decree, ordained from of old.
They came at you - no shying steeds amid the billows -

6. No antelope bounding from weary roads.
Soft bows, slack string, restless horses

7. Grazing with mountain goats. Of what use
Are fangs and claws against thickets and dens?

8. The lion bestrode the eagles and harried
The antelope into acacia woods.

9. Arrows flew from the quivers of every lithe bowman.
And they were split into bands in their own land,

10. The least pushed the greatest in their haste.
Only - they squandered their wits trusting

11. In their numbers...and many a confident one falls.
Sons of the blond! Your wiles brought you nothing,

12. For cunning in every man is kin to failure.
You returned with no noble captives. Only weaklings, followers, the dregs!

13. You stripped the threshing floors, carried off Bare white grain bags, seized chickens from their coops!
Does he who takes horses match their riders for speed?

14. Is the man who takes arms like their owner in battle
Where conflict spins on the palm of the wrestler?

15. An army touched by the evil eye - though no army
Lacks some flaw, and this army of ours is peerless!

16. The day of Hunain remains their exemplar
As they are the best of all people with the Seal of Prophets among them.

17. With a single strike they will squeeze you as though
You were but white chickens, quaking sparrows!

18. A king of utmost dignity, of proven integrity
In word and action purer than the immaculate pearl;

19. Dawn has not yet faded, the sun has not set,
No sword has snapped, no thongs have given way.

20. What multitudes the light of Faith has saved
From darkness! What throngs, for the darkness thick within,

21. It has made to see! For how many, at the encounter
Did their eyes now modestly drop, gaze down in shame!

22. A land where none was visible but some hero;
Now none is seen but some old pile of rubble.

23. Say to them who have turned their backs:
"Where is your modesty? Hide your gaze, eyes downcast!"

24. The easy way spelled salvation, but had you clung
To your king, you'd have found the uphill path more sweet.

25. You left him exposed, but he granted you quarter Such as if a mountain goat sought would not find!
Still you raced off, hoards lost, neither stumbling nor forced,

26. Bare steeds unsaddled, white stocks driven down no ravines,
Nor were you struck by the moan of bolts,

27. Nor were swords reddened for flesh in the evening light.
He stood alone

28. Till his troops were around him, a band
To witness it leopards would drop their jaws -

29. Some fled their reason, some firm-rooted stood stared,
Heedless of them, he walked his rage concealed,

30. To press them the more as the back way means no escape.
Your nearest is farther than those you deem farthest

31. As though you had no notion of his whereabouts.
His firmness in your horses' hearts preserved Your spirits beyond what nerveless breasts could bear.

32. The lion in repose is seldom surprised,
Nor does fate allow the valiant mid assault rash harm.

33. God support you in your aim
As once he supported you in your first feats!

34. What spoils and wealth you gained without return!
What lands you took, keeping as your earned domains!

35. What flow you gave high streams from a lordly cloth!
What settlements you watered from a hero's bowl!

36. Dark blood of gashed throats his courser wades;
No flesh is sweeter than the meager evening meal!

37. Your sword harvesting the foe you let lie a season.
Shorter his respite, the less your saber dulled!

38. Your arrows never miss their destined quoit;
No day has turned your hands from holding their course!