1. When they prepare for war, jet blackness
Enshrouds their hearts, and destruction is their wont;

2. One morn they made ready for Ibn Udhra a thrust
With keen polished blades that severed life and soul;

3. Thereat Ibn al-Gawan’s rule was brought down, despoiled
Were the women of Ibn al-Gawan by what time has decreed;

4. They came forth like silk-clad idols with starry eyes
And about them played saffron tattoos on their skin;

5. Whenever Kharma visited, Amr ibn Aamir
Was her knight and her guard against shame and dishonor;

6. A tribe defending its honor, driving off harm,
Valiant warriors against whom no enemy could prevail;

7. I saw the Banu Tamim rushing to join them
Whenever war shook the ranks of its green battalions;

8. And if the plunging fires of battle were kindled,
A Tameemi band would rally when comrades lost nerve;

9. No chieftain reproached Diyab among foes
Either for yellowness of sword blades or the paleness of faces;

10. They brandished long lances, dependable now
As a means to wealth, or privation in days of want;

11. The best wealth for Diyab in time of need
Was when all mankind succumbed to oppression and force;

12. Whenever their lances encountered a chief his doom
Was for his mantle to be shredded to pieces;

13. A woman visiting her kin after having been wed,
Not entitled to dowry when their destinies merged;

14. If her son met her brother their glances raged
With the fires of hatred—though their lineage was one;

15. And he’d forbid her to say, “An orphan am I,
With no family now but the children I’ve nursed”;

16. So the death of the virtuous benefits no man
If he loses his soul though he gains the entire world.