1. For a matter, O Sons of Jusham,
I withheld the water in the water-skin,

2. And stirred the steeds all night,
Filling their muzzles with the nose-rein.

3. And startled the wild cats
With the pictured and figured thong.

4. I wandered in the blackest dark,
Caring nothing for halter or road.

5. And how many a night I spent
Empty of hand, of illness free!

6. And a fire I kindled whose glowing
Was as the gazing eyes of the beasts.

7. I found rest and healing in it
From the pain and ache within.

8. How little its wounding matters
To the burning anguish in my heart!

9. The shining eyes of loved ones are
Fairer than meadows of dreams.

10. Either fortune allows me to see them
Among the shifting walls of the tents,

11. Or I wander, lost in the desert,
Stuffing the darkness with moans and sighs.

12. I ransom my purpose, my honor, all
That is sworn to, accused!

13. And every frequenter of springs comes to drink
At the ruins that murmur of might-have-been.

14. When words grow distant, to me
Their utterance draws very near.

15. I have two manners that are not fit
Save for the sword and the pen.

16. What flowering thicket ever cast
A perfume on days from my brambles?

17. Blossoms too proud to accept
The bounty of earth or of rain,

18. A wind whose scent was a waft
Of musk drawn over gifts of the dawn.

19. I am the son of the lightning and wind
Of the gazelles, the horses, the sheep.

20. My hooves paw wherever the acres
Are joyous and fruitful with life.

21. My nature is one that is proud;
I halt where the battle waxes hot.

22. My flesh takes on dust and delicious fear
Where the neck and the spine form a crest.

23. And every sweet meadow that casts
A fragrance of summer-my soul there lifts wings.

24. A kind where the sword-edge is baffled,
The fangs of its men tarnished, dimmed.

25. A stabber whom battle clothes
With a shirt which is crimsoned and dripping.

26. My people are those who give surety,
Security, when challenges threaten a tribe.

27. When terror dismays the dissenter
And quivers through all that he is,

28. They show him a havoc that darkens
The blaze and the edge of the sun

29. Until truth can unveil for the dreamer
The falsehood and lie of suspicion.

30. Until he who spread terror
Comes to them, in his error, with shame.

31. Until the most reckless of slanderers
Changes and sinks to regret.

32. Until every rash judge swears again
That he never will question or doubt.

33. Each shrouded in silence, withdrawn,
Enduring the furnace of pain.

34. Your name in protection by me
Is enclosed as by utmost endeavor.

35. And that is preserved by my care
Against the rude spears that assail.

36. And enough that the rashness of youth
Should slacken in insulting your fame!

37. My hope folded wings and crouched low
In the powerful sweep of misfortune.