1. When we invaded, we invaded with spears
And the people of Salma with the sword of the sea from the bay

2. Alas, alas, between the two abodes
I have fulfilled my longing and sent away my glance

3. It took its place with a drop of the earth, isolated
The wind falls short of it whenever it blows

4. So the lovesick does not attain his destination
Except with effort and pulling the smooth rock with the rope

5. I loved my family and did not wrong them with my love
They said you were blindly partisan, the words of the confused

6. I protect their sanctuary and cast at their rivals
And refrain when their foot slips

7. My tongue is theirs with my praise and acclaim
Yes, and my heart and what my ability contains

8. Let me join my womb-relations if you have severed them
The womb cannot exist in this world without connection

9. If not for my tribes, I would not have hoped for one who knew me
Nor joined over the days from a remainder

10. So protect your closest tribe, for they
Have a right that distinguishes between spouse and wife

11. My people, the sons of Himyar, and the lion their lineage
And the house of Kinda, and the virtuous among the protected

12. Show forbearance, so if their reins are loosened
They unsheathe the swords and return every obstinate one

13. They are the firmest people when reviled
And feet rarely stand firm in trial

14. How many worries of the troubled they eased
And how much they endured of hardships and agonies

15. How many eyes of the twisted I gouged their sights
And how many I cut down for the wrongful from the defended

16. How many enemies attack me while
The claws are fixed in him, the foe rushes uncontrolled

17. If the bull of Tamim had lived and heard
My poetry, he would have died and the despicable one died

18. So he became with the furthest enmity my tormentor
My fear, so he stayed awake with a pounding heart that did not sleep

19. The daughters of the heart came to him restless
In fear of the injustice of my father with the cleft lip

20. Like a lion, if lions were determined against him
He would not avert his gaze or panic or become silent

21. My soul competes with me in every glorious deed
To the heights, and if I opposed it, it would refuse

22. How often I have trodden with exhausted intestines
For the soul on the path of softness and calm

23. And how often I charged down the path of death, confronting
With the sword as my connection, so it led me to abundance

24. Generosity knows that since it pledged to me
I have not betrayed it whether in ease or hardship

25. And the guest knows that whenever he comes to me suddenly
My wings dash to my palms and my ability

26. He desires his desire, and I desire what delights me
He attains what he wants, and the soul what it craved

27. No guest leaves me having spent his night
Except with provision, escort, and excuse

28. The censurers said: "Wealth has brought me to ruin." I said to them:
"What is between a reward I have given and an act of commendation."

29. "You have wasted your wealth," they said. I replied: "Wealth corrupts me
When I am stingy with it, and generosity reforms me."

30. The sustenance of my Lord is for people He apportions it
Wherever He wills, so He directs it to my open hand

31. So let them thank Allah, not my thanks for their surplus
And let them praise Him, for praise is of lasting benefit

32. Do not engage in jest with an ignorant fool
Whose heart was pleased with what his lip conveyed

33. For many a rhyme in jest flows
Barren, it did not intend growth, yet it flourished

34. Replying wholesomely after its cutting off
Is like the reply of a rhyme after it has passed

35. When I say a verse, its speaker dies
And the one it is said to, yet the verse does not die