1. Does my heart get a reprieve for its passions?
Graying hair after youth is destined.

2. My friends have abandoned me, leaving me worried and sleepless,
A cheek frequented by doors and homes.

3. When I saw they were in earnest and bid me farewell,
The day of youth and Mansour was Mansour.

4. I accompanied them with a bold, daring, generous spirit,
As if it were a vessel of clay, round and plump.

5. Horses that do not tire of galloping,
When the mirage covers them in sorrow and gloom.

6. As if between the flanks of Wasit were a youth
And between the softness of Tayy is a frightened creature.

7. O clan of Sufyan, what is my plight and yours?
You are many, while in dreams I am a little bird.

8. When you defeat a friend, you assault him
As a swarm demolishes the water spiders.

9. You are a mob, with disgrace in your lineage,
Delayed maturity and hasty adolescence.

10. O Sufyan clan, I witnessed you
In the days of your red-skinned mother.

11. Why did you not forbid your reckless brother
When you were drinking wine, intoxicated?

12. You will never outdo me, even if I give you a head start,
The hindmost, when the vanguard of riders is delayed, catches up.

13. It terrified the living horses in the valley,
The disheveled, unkempt horses pursued them.

14. They carry every roaring, valiant, hard-drinking warrior,
And under them are fleet, swift riding beasts.

15. To the war cries—my waist wrapper is doubled over
As if plastered with resin and wax.

16. White, worn only in times of fear,
Woven by David with musk infused in its fabric.

17. Girding a sword that does not break,
The venom of its blow lethal and penetrating.

18. And a flexible, deafening coat of mail,
With nails like iron spikes driven through it.

19. The people know I am one of their horsemen
When the intestines contract into knots inside the belly.

20. You threatened to deny my camels fodder—
The clan of Ghaziyya will not swerve or limp.

21. A people, when the warriors and steeds marshaled,
Endurance, when the leather tent pegs pounded the ground.

22. As if their children, when mixed with them,
Were small birds beneath the small tent.

23. When we raid, we clothe our horses in neck armor,
And when we are raided, it is as if we left but briefly.

24. Their lead mares escape the glittering sword,
As the frog escapes under the copious rains.

25. A man by the name of Amr slept amidst his armor—
Amr ibn Sufyan, proud wielder of two swords.

26. I do not recognize an ominous, visibly dark banner
That summons dogs, while the spear lies broken.