1. I see the poets of the people other than me as if they are
In Mecca the cotton-dealers of the familiar dovecotes,

2. I am amazed at a people who if they saw me made excuses
And if I was absent they were amidst slanderers and deviants against me,

3. They used to fear my fierceness
And the abundant flow of my penetrating eyes overwhelms them,

4. And I pierce the bosoms of onlookers and
The passions of the shy, lovely maidens incline towards me,

5. And if I feared Khalid would alarm me
I would have flown with a bird whose feathers are not rowing,

6. As I flew from the Egypt of Ziyad and he
Turns his tusks towards me with familiarity,

7. And I did not fear that I would see in Mukhayyis
Walking with short steps like the walking of ostriches,

8. I refused while the horses circled around me with jingling
A watcher among them following me like a confederate.