1. If you ask me after strength is gone
How time has brought me to this,

2. Remaining after glory's flame is dead,
My achievements smooth, my pride brought down,

3. Alone, harmed by injuries,
Debased by disgrace on every side,

4. Like a grove of trees, stripped bare
Where ostriches grazed the tender greens,

5. In ways of fate that bring us low
Or raise us high, then turn and change,

6. Great dynasties in dust are strown
While foxes and wild dogs range,

7. They reaped, but left no harvest grain,
No fruitful steed remained in stall,

8. Though once they held both mount and plain,
And made the mountain-sides their thrall,

9. Raqqa, whose palaces displayed
Such wealth, lies naked in decay

10. Since the grim days Fate brought to aid
The fortunes of Arwad's array,

11. And Balkh, whose heights and sweet canal
Knew not of any sieging foe

12. Till princely rule and pomp did fall
As sugar melts, and torrents flow,

13. Seeking the pledge of peace, their swords
Became their guarantee of grace,

14. If they dismounted, swiftly hordes
Would mount and conquer in their place,

15. Defiant, while each prince afraid
Crouched humbly underneath their feet,

16. Their hosts would storm his house and raid
His tribe, so desolate and bleak,

17. When their fires rose, the smoke would cloud
The Milky Way's soft, luminous haze,

18. I mourn their memory, wrapped in shroud,
But meet no more their living gaze,

19. From them my sires Zuhayr draw praise
And Hijan's fame derives from me,

20. My soul's most cherished skill betrays
Sweet elocution's potency,

21. The honest brows of princes gone
Shone bright, no thieves or cowards they,

22. Leaving me weak, to struggle on,
No match for others in the fray,

23. If you deny my lineage true,
Their remnants still attest our fame,

24. Ask of the noble souls who knew
The virtue once esteemed our name,