1. Do the suns by which the caravans are defied
Have a heart predisposed to any faith but this?

2. Or in those languid eyes that look at us
Is there blood forbidden to those who shoot arrows?

3. They reined in their camels, so copious tears flowed,
Neither alarming a foe, nor tears of fright stanched,

4. How often I have forbidden their driver sharply
Until confused voices and veiled ones were made equal.

5. And in the resting places there were deferred promises
From which neither vowed nor avowed was fulfilled,

6. And procrastinating women putting off
The debts of love binding them, oh nights and oh nights!

7. Not to be discharged by a youth who kills a protector
Nor is there behind vengeance a distressed avenger,

8. They deny the blood shed by their eyelids
Though attested by cheeks and fingers.

9. Oh, camel-driver, anticipate the stragglers among them!
Dash to the vein! The dust of departure is stirred up.

10. Detain them but an hour to let the lovesick rest,
You have been generous to them for ages.

11. The camels are obedient, the land is spacious,
It's just a matter of advancing or delaying.

12. They wore coats of mail at the Zarud valleys, facing their fate,
And their being hurled into the shades of An Na’am is exile.

13. They pulled at the mount of Arak, and the red sunset
Was swaddled when the cries of the birds died down.

14. They made the night a commodity; when they saw it
The nightingales in my collar sang and chirped.

15. How could their guide not enjoy the herbage
When every valley for them overflows with tears?

16. At Nu’man they gathered forcefully the greens,
Crashing into the soft parts and the rugged parts;

17. So confusion and terror ensued.
Behind them the covenant of the right hand is neglected,

18. Lost, and the neighbor's halter is abandoned.

19. I closed my eyelids to the dawn for their sake
To protect it, for their day has no light.

20. My soul resisted being blamed by despair for them.
Everyone commanded by others has an excuse.

21. I counted out to my intoxication the months
Of a year gone by, while my heart is still drunk.

22. Such is my heart’s share of those it loved!
Since love experienced loss and paucity.

23. It guards nothing unless it is discarded,
Clings to nothing unless it is abandoned.

24. I even feared a white lion would be born
In the East to a lioness of great fame.

25. Who has an ambition whose capacity encompasses
The wounds of desolation and a long dark night?

26. Not fearing the feared side with restraint, due to his knowledge
That the paths of glory are delusion and deception.

27. He drives the steeds to fulfill his needs,
And the camels until saddle and stirrup creak and knock.

28. He contends with the eastern horizon for his direction in prayer
In moderation, from what Khuzistan to Jurjan contains.

29.
Inform those who carry the burdens of the perils, appealing

30. To destiny and aided by it.

31. Greet Meissan, its dignities shared between them,
Some in ruins, some settled and prosperous.

32. Then go where you wish, for the nobility of all people
Has no equal, and there glory and grace abide,

33. And moons that illuminate the villages, and toward
The ascending dawn, horsemen galloping.

34. And reserve some slender-waisted women of Duddan presented by
An enemy, whom the lions meet head-on.

35. Tell them what my advice to them has ordained,
Though most advice is intimidation and warning.

36. They were cowardly toward the guardian of the command, so avoid
Hearts, for the victorious king is triumphant.

37. Become sincere in your coats of mail through obeying him,
For it is the dawn, and its first lights are the harbingers.

38. And follow the truth submissively to his command,
For the follower of truth is forbidden and obedient.

39.
The kinsfolk were led by one provisioned, their leadership

40. Refined of lineage for the protected king.

41. Descended from Ma’ad ibn Adnan, noble in ancestry,
A treasure for this affair concealed.

42.
Grown from a lion, a line fostering him

43. To the chaste, and the line of glory severed.

44. And from Dubays in the convention of glory descended,
To al-Husayn, and the affair of glory accomplished.

45. Do not dispute with Allah in smoothing the path of authority over you,
For one who disputes Allah is subdued.

46. Spare the people! Walk under his banner,
And through you every house among the people is enriched.

47.
And do not strip bare the glories of your past

48. Out of envy for the son of Husayn and the future consequences.

49. Or pretend to have days like him which dazzled,
While the truth is radiant and falsehood banished.

50. For one whose eyelids are accustomed to stay up with the stricken,
The night of hospitality has tents set up.

51. And couches that guide the lost when
Their bells ring or there are cries in the dark,

52. Which singing slave-girls answer whenever they falter,
As if deaf to the ruckus.

53. Chaste women who submit to him like dogs,
Though the day of Tkhifa is unknown and deluded.

54.
For death there will be a day to ford the pool,

55. And for salvation, a day to ride at spear-points.
They carry toward the enemy anyone with resentment

56. Who does not heed death until it is predestined.
Inhaling violence from the unsheathing of his sword,

57. As if by the outpoured blood perfumed.
When the horsemen felt a respite they found

58. The father of horsemen where the day was fated.

59. Or they would not appoint the flames of the two states
Upon their swords, so the strike would have no effect.

60.
And which young man is for every people the mark of fame

61. Inscribed upon the cheek of time?
Like Layla of Sous or the night of Bathan, and what

62. Warded off Taymuk, do your signs foretell?

63. And the stand at Mu’allim, days which prevent you
Being forgotten, though it is recorded.

64.
And unlike him, if lavishness threatens him with poverty,

65. He is content with the mention of poverty.

66. He does not cast aside scattered riches
Until hardship and ease are equal to him.

67.
When his fingers clasp something protectively,

68. The denarii are most wasted.

69. The caravans direct their camels to
His chastity, then follow them with excuses.

70.
He bought praise from them with largesse, no

71. Wealth depleted, and honor abundant.
If the day earns spoils he leaves no share for tomorrow,

72. For tomorrow has its own affairs and changes.
Be humble toward him, then honored, O Banu Asad,

73. For patience with truth is reverence and honor.
The people are inferior to you, dispersed, while he is above you, and

74. Traces do not support my words or legends.
For you are the listening ears of Adnan and its eyes,

75. While the people are deaf to your beneficence, blind.
You are the white birthmark on Mudar

76. And its towering abundant growth and throngs.

77. Has any tribe in your days of glory
Been defiant or prominent while you are the famous?

78. On the day of Hajar each inviolable sovereign
In his kingdom has the star held back and confined.

79. He dragged troops from Ghassan driving them before him
With persistence in fate and delusions of grandeur,

80. Time provided him days of respite and empowered him
Over realms, postponing and rebuilding.

81.
So he led them against you, seeking your protection tax

82. While you are inviolable in glory.

83. He swears he will not return except after subjugating you!
What an oath, if only the shaykh had integrity.

84.
But he had no religion other than yours for them

85. Except the sword, permitting and deeming unbeliever.
Jandal was mixed with them, and your spears

86. Drove in its rear like the back of the earth dragged.
Rabi’a was healed by it of an oppressive fever,

87. Never did he mount the sword but overwhelmed.

88. And ibn Abi Shammar kindled against you
The fire with the two tribes, providing timber and stoking.

89. So he repelled his hatred listless, and its raging
With water, so the streams doused and buried it.

90.
And ask the Banu Fa’ira, the sons of Sa’sa’a,

91. About the truth – bound and shackled they will inform you.
They did not accept the advice of the snout of a dog, so they retreated

92. On a day of evil, its whirlwinds swirling about them.

93. And at Nisar and the days of Jifar you have
Stands whose protection in the land is spread.

94.
Tamim complained to you of the swords

95. Raised against the Banu ‘Amir, and the sword was commanded.
And the eyebrow hoped for the aid of Sabiqa

96. Whose aid in victory is ever repeated and reiterated.
You gained goodness and pure spoils at Ma’alla,

97. So a day of wrath against them and destruction ensued.

98. And al-Harith ibn Abi Shammar complains of the son
Of his sister by you – though complaining falls short.

99.
Those virtues – no decorated camel herd belonging to them

100. Is with Khawl doubled and augmented in price.

101. No racehorses crowding the two valleys,
Prepared for the one who demands and is parted with them.

102.
What time has covered of your deeds it forgot,

103. For it and the two Huseiniyya are spread.

104. O best of those whose camel litter was loaded
And saddle, seeking his gate, the camel and the steed of race.

105.
And best of those who risked plunging into calamities

106. So he departed happy, even when submerged.

107. And who would blame his gifts and curse them
Other than the squanderer and the wastrel?

108. I disciplined my fate with your name or smoothed
The way, and fate is subjugated by the name of the noble.

109. Your good fortune stood up until its hand
Corrected the conduit of my fortune twisted and prone.

110. I am spellbound by your generosity, drawing out its concealed
Wellspring – the generous in poetry are enchanted.

111. And you bought me with abundant provision on the cheap
Until I profited, and some of the sale was fraud.

112.
I believed the oneness of God in poetry miraculously

113. Through its verses – faith and unbelief are in poetry.

114. You were not like men whose glory
Harkened to my praise but hearing bounty was forbidden to them.

115.
From the eloquent Arab tribes they put forward

116. Only dew – that is justification and excuse.
And precedents that halted in your courtyard

117. Then turned away, laden with bounty.

118. However, you neglected, from them, only a single
Outcast, and some neglect is forgivable.

119. She stepped forth with her rear kneecap exposed,
And sometimes delay holds advantage.