1. My she-camel yearns for the outskirts of the city,
Yearning like a calf seeking pasture at dusk.

2. If only the city outskirts were transformed
Into digging pits or by Sword of Judgement made flat!

3. How often I slept in the city, unaware—
My soul kept from prying—of wiles and sly tricks,

4. When my soul grew impudent, I'd say to her: "Turn back!
Be ashamed before whiteness of scattered remnants!"

5. For she who harmed you, if you'd tasted her poison,
Would burden you amid disputes of Judgement Day.

6. You're not one who lightly utters words
Unless with purpose you've girded determined will.

7. When they refused but to depart, and tethered
On saddles—slit, rugged—mouths grim with insult,

8. And took off with my body, my heart held back,
Clutched in anxiety 'tween worshipper and pillar,

9. I say to one defeated, whom time with passing stars
Has turned his bones to dust: "If we call, you answer not,

10. And if we ransom you with more than clouds,
You give us naught but drippings of the rain."

11. Fate will bring you the best of mankind; so be just—
Transferring texts of laws inscribed on tablets.

12. To believer who frees all shackled at wrist
And unburdens others of each heavy debt,

13. With two hands—whitened palms—in them contained
Life of all things by rains of succor are sustained,

14. By the best of hands, after Mohammed,
And his noble kin from Hashim's line descended.

15. When valley of Qura to our rear unfurled
And we climbed the mountain ridges rising in sight,

16. Each longing one among our band turned his head,
Blinded by cascades like defeated warriors in flight.

17. And realized we'd not return to visit them,
When mountains of separation stood in our way.

18. Did you think my journey would conclude with you,
When the twisting of turbans had not yet come undone?

19. How ugly—the guardian of truth who takes refuge
In Him when tangled in life's awful calamities!

20. Mourner—as if sitariat on his head
Were a gown whose tatters the squalls make dance!

21. Winds flapping his ropes where East and West
Have worn his covenant threadbare in time long past.

22. I returned with stars in reverse—as if
Their pursuer attacked from rear, striking necks down.

23. With ringing of bells—their eyes like a circlet
Shading them—ring of prominent cheekbones encased.

24. As if legs of ibex were entwined by ropes
Of howdah—compacted, bound tight in a mass.

25. Before you, Defender of Truth, their necks reached out
And their humps, as you called them, arranged in due place.

26. High-bred steeds carrying cares that dried up
Within us, of noble ladies aloof in their tents.

27. To fill the earth with light, mercy, justice,
Rain for the dusty, late watering at end of bleak days.

28. You were made secure refuge and mercy for mankind,
Cure for wounds that multiply and cannot be staunched.

29. Just as God sent as prophet Mohammed
When mankind was beastlike, in days of ignorance lost,

30. You inherited canal of kingship without thirst
From Banu Hashim and sons of Manaf, noblest of kin.

31. By their blood they swore, and their blood
Was sincere, though they the healing flasks were smashed.

32. May God reward my people, for when they sought my life,
Qutaiba strove to gain two honorable men.

33. They heard—while crowds at Minna gathered—my call
When raiders turned their backs preparing to flee.

34. They pursued with swords and sharp spears
That bare their teeth, hurling vile insults.

35. Urged on but not held back when facing the valiant
With bared heads, catastrophic for wicked foes.

36. As if you never heard of Tameem's raids, when called,
Tameem responds, oblivious to Ibn Khazim's day.

37. Before you we hurried Ibn ‘Ajlaa to his fate
With our swords splitting skulls and piercing bones.

38. Qais Ibn ‘Ailaan met no disasters,
Nor fought a day like the day of Al-‘Araaqim.

39. The eve Ibn Al-Hubaab faced his reckoning
In Sinjar, swords polished and gleaming struck.

40. For Qais we barked a bark leaving no trace
Of honor; their shame our hissing arrows hit.

41. You regretted rebellion when you saw us
Like mountain goats with split cheeks and tattered ears.

42. Obedient though mountains of Taiy sided with them,
And plateau carried what no plateau has carried before.

43. When commoners fail to acknowledge and obey,
Naught remains between them and us but swish of sword slashes.

44. Qais stirs up against me only the worthless rabble,
Scorned riffraff with vile organs for hearing,

45. Yet insulting my Tameem and praising Qais,
You're either mad for ‘Ailaan or Suhool the scatterbrain.

46. Bring for judgment your sire and his brother—
Both shamed alike in the cloak of disgrace.

47. If you were one of them you'd not fatigue praising them,
But a donkey with legs like date palm stalks!

48. I protect my Tameem from the likes of you—
I am her son and her famous knight of seasons.

49. I am Tameem's son, the champion behind her
When the criminal submits to inviolable laws.

50. When the faces of people sweat under their turbans
From exertion, under the mid-day sun,

51. My father when asked: "Who are you, proud one?"
Would say: "Of what people is this defiant hero?"

52. Vile wretch selling Qais honor for profit—
They are builders of glory and noble deeds!

53. The highwaymen learned no captives like our captives,
Nor our ransacking with the overwhelming conquests.

54. When the valiant grew weary of carrying blood money,
Every debt collector turned to our graves.

55. Each victim seeking refuge comes running to us,
And every oppressor flees exhausted from our grip.

56. ‘Aamir refused to take one captive of theirs
When we had a hundred of theirs within our grasp.

57. They said: Give us more, they are worthless,
Though they be ruinous troublers of sublime gathering.

58. They deemed an eyebrow more costly to ransom,
And its folk more deserving of glorious days.

59. Unlike Kulayb or any like Darim's father,
Swords of India—their attacks may slice a talisman,

60. Sometimes severing the neck's hanging taweez,
The day we shaded ‘Aamir at Hawazan's valley,

61. Where sons of ‘Aamir were all triumphant victors,
When Tufayl son of Malik left Qurzul routed,

62. And we struck Shutayr son of Khalid, whose mother
Would recognize him by the washbowl that caught his blood.

63. The day of Ibn Dhi Saydan, their spear shafts impaled him,
His rear flanked by the piercing tips of lances.

64. While we split the skull of Ibn Khuwaylid,
More than the mother of chicks among piercing claws.

65. We left eighty mature warriors of Hilal Ibn ‘Aamir
For the vultures tearing with might and talons slashing.

66. With Dahna sands we buried ‘Ayylan,
In a grave mound piled high with her tumulus.

67. We prevented Mas'ad from our spears,
Ever facing the cowardly, never the valiant.

68. With knotted shanks like lanterns fused together,
Polished white with the legs of Ostriches.

69. We broke the nose of ‘Aylaan with spears
And white-legged mares with pedigrees pure.

70. Had it been Qais instead of ‘Aylaan that perished
From tips of tent pegs and guy-ropes lying crushed,

71. They would be like cuttlefish washed ashore
From the sea, flailing severed from their limbs.

72. We are a people who buy with our blood
Abodes of demise, yearning for glorious deeds.

73. Are we not most deserving when people compete
For glory, with prolific performers of favors?

74. Kings whose abundance would overwhelm you
And submerge you in their deep billowing storms,

75. Weighed against mountains, we would tip the scales,
With mountain massifs, gigantic and lofty.

76. Gaze from your perch overlooking us
With distant hills, rising high, peaks like spear heads.

77. Had the sun been asked who is our peer,
Or inclined for Hashim's sons with favor,

78. How can you face Darim where his kin
Merge into celestial sphere, the double star of brilliance?

79. Our swords left ‘Aylaan only stumps and palms
With the spear shafts' ends striking the rear of their necks.

80. Days we witnessed their women as small stars
Wandering in the night, their banners stripped.

81. The day of woe for Qais at Dhi Najb,
Bereft of many orphans in the house of mourning,

82. While we at Dafinah left Hudhayl's band
Keeping night vigil, though heads in slumber bowing.

83. I swear by the shrine maidens dancing to Mina,
Circling with yearning around the Precinct's walls,

84. Disheveled, fearing no blurring of their modesty
When their ornaments brushed against the turbans,

85. That Qais Ibn ‘Aylaan will find with Tameem
No treaty intact, their progeny reject compliance.

86. By my life! If Hawazin tended to their affairs
They would dwell in the Abode of Blame with vile outcasts.

87. Had I not shunned attacking Suleim,
I would have served them a cup of deadly poison.

88. You are not of ‘Aylaan's Qais among the tribes,
Nor of their lofty skulls and prominent bones.

89. If Qais were mustered, you'd be the unworthy few,
Most distant from Qais' lineage—learned man knows!

90. You're the lowest cowards of ‘Aylaan
And weakest when events require heroes.

91. My maternal uncles are the august glory
With which Mudar's drums make the skulls resound.

92. When they're adorned with necklaces and don their war caps,
Tameem rises like the towering waves of seas.

93. People assembled are naught but rabble
Once the din and clamor turn to silence.

94. Accursed liar—lowly worm denying Tameem
And earth's Creator! Tameem's stalwart heroes

95. With gleaming swords have lowered the pride
Of ‘Aylaan, inflicting upon them days of epic wars.

96. You taunt me over Qais' days, yet I left no
‘Aylaan nose straight with symmetrical features.

97. So you are neither Qais defending them
Nor Tameem, among the greatest of renown.

98. Yet insulting Tameem while praising Qais
You are either mad for ‘Aylaan or a Suhooli buffoon.

99. I have prevented the likes of you from attacking Tameem—
I am her son and famous knight of all seasons.

100. I am Tameem's son and her defending champion
When the fugitive seeks inviolable sanctuaries.

101. The day Tameem dons their white apparel
Under turbans, during major rituals and rites,

102. Qais Ibn ‘Aylaan will find with Tameem
No treaties left, their progeny reject compliance.

103. By my life! If Hawazin tended to their affairs
They would dwell in the Abode of Blame with vile outcasts.

104. Had I not disdained to war with Suleim,
I would have served them a cup of fatal poison.

105. You are not Qais of ‘Aylaan among the tribes,
Neither their lofty skulls and prominent bones.

106. When Qais is gathered, you are the unworthy few,
Most distant from the Qais' pristine stock—for scholars know!

107. You are the lowest cowards of ‘Aylaan
And weakest when events require heroes.

108. I wonder that Qais took upon herself
Stubborn folly, author of calamities.

109. Seeking protection in Muraagha and its people—
Yet none of them for Qais would be my equal!

110. How strange Kulayb insults me, when Kulayb
Was a milking ground for vilest obscenities.