1. The two imprudent men ruined my affair, so they weep
With bleeding lament for the absent one fiercely raging.

2. Had they adopted proper measures for my affair, they would have forced
The most crooked side of disobedience into the straight path.

3. Impregnable are the clan of Sufyan beneath his banner
When the summoner rises and the milk-cows return.

4. You will recall the days gone by with friends when you meet
As a guest, and see what his seeker has done to him.

5. I thought Abu Qays to be the donkey of the law,
While he stopped for you when dawn had made plain its eyebrow.

6. If you were the sword of the son of the unjust tyrant,
You would have struck till the kinsfolk of dead Auf cried out.

7. But you found the arrow too heavy beyond your strength,
So blood which you sought has destroyed you.

8. If you two do not take thought for your brother
To make a voice echo between the bow-ends of the racers,

9. Would that you two had been, sons of Sufyan, instead of blood
Flowing between its planks, the bilge of a ship!