1. For whom is a house ruins beside Dhat al-Khamis?
It stood out white between al-‘Aqiq and the belly of Dhars.

2. I liken it to a cloudy day of planting,
Its lightning flashed or the light of a sun.

3. So I swear not to hear passionate love like ‘Amr’s
For she of the moles, from jinn and mankind.

4. May God protect you, O daughter of the family of ‘Amr,
From the youths, the likes of me and my soul.

5. So bear no children, nor marry the like of me,
Whenever a night comes with misfortune.

6. When the pots are overturned, wealth becomes
The in-laws of the righteous love my wedding.

7. The wet nurses knew in Jumada,
When they were quickened from grief and restlessness,

8. That I spend no night without meat
And begin with the widows when I alight.

9. That my dog bays not the guest
Nor does a wicked slave stay in my presence.

10. And you claim that I am an old man,
Yet did I tell her that I am the son of yesterday?

11. You want legs that stumble bow-legged
To jerk the stirrup of every saddle.

12. Yellow from drinking at springs morning draughts
With tusks and molars as identifiers.

13. I paid to the overflowing when they grew weary,
At the ascent of every sun on the knees.

14. And if barren, Tamika will repay
And if sterile, I am no lesser man.

15. And from a dancing girl I drove back horses,
With rhythmic swaying heavy-hipped.

16. And my hand falls short of no great task
That concerns me, my arrow is no lesser.

17. And I am no waverer when matters rise high,
Great in affairs, no coward, no weakling.

18. And I crossed the breadth of the wounded at night,
Swifter than a stud on the feast day when it reclines.

19. As if its shifts, when its sun shone,
Were clothes and bedsheets.