1. The contented sat in humiliation, so arise!
Only the resolute doer accomplishes when he intends.

2. My place is naught but going forth with resolve;
I constantly roar like a ragged old lion.

3. I turn my hopes aside, obsessed with them,
Then forget them when adversity pains.

4. Long has my stay been, wandering in gloom,
Yet long ago I was the lamp lighter of glooms.

5. I do not blame care if it clings to me,
For a man's worries rouse his strength and zeal.

6. I am not weak, but a man whom
Misfortunes have wronged, so he is wronged.

7. And Time has bared its fangs,
Perennially making us sweat blood.

8. Sinful revels are honorable to it,
And admonitions like gibberish.

9. Fate humbled itself before us, then rebelled,
Thus is the wont of fate, should it grow harsh.

10. I am one of its sons, among a folk
Who plot to subdue lofty souls.

11. If absence has veiled me from their eyes,
They shred my honor like shreds of skin.

12. They meet me only argumentative,
Mouthing insults, and I am muzzled.

13. If you see me silent and aloof,
Like cooling embers, I smolder and glow.

14. My cares are ever active, their effort
Not every day a forward step.

15. Glory may answer one it has laid low,
Fear and lack bar seekers of glory.

16. Yet the insistent seeker may attain it,
Or one whose vigor rivals the elderly's.

17. Time has left in me a mettle
That turns back the un-Arabic speaker if he's un-Arabic.

18. And if Fate shakes it, it will grow
Supple, lengthening with the stretches of Time.

19. You are no man for the blossoms if you have not seen them
Like the roar of plateau winds confusing the thickets.

20. The land is emptied of its horsemen,
From Baghdad to the sacred precincts.

21. With neighs filling the horizon with darkness
And spear-thrusts dyeing the earth with blood.

22. With heads tossing off the summits,
And flanks shaking off the robe's hem.

23. They came like calamity, and the rain poured down,
The darkness gathered, and the torrents rushed.

24. Bearing every enraged man
With a burning glance and twisted lips.

25. Their glances like hungry falcons -
Gleaming behind the visors.

26. They demolished what the valiant horde had built
With lofty pillars and generosity.

27. I will not offer excuses, ardently in love,
My ancestors the highest of nations.

28. My fingers were created to flank
The spearpoint as well as the pen.

29. None are seen like me but either seeking
The dais' pinnacle or the pit's depth.

30. Aiming at the heads atop its poles,
Or the tall spearshafts' points.

31. A strategy - either glorious or repelled,
My white hairs urging me to regret.

32. I was born of men with glory and eminence-
Tomorrow their equals will be rubble.

33. It brought me the spear in the grip of a horseman,
A hero who forced me until I broke.

34. It brought me the supple blade whose edge
Has slit the egg with its blows and split it open.

35. Can you see me, except as one who sought the heights
On nights that have passed since `Ad and Iram?

36. I am near, contending for my right,
Seizing the Arabs' diadems for myself.

37. How many fathers have I, ancestors who burned
To win it, their sons and nephews!

38. Some craved it and were abased,
Some aspired to it and triumphed.

39. They were patient under every harm because of it,
And met all agony apart from it.

40. If it be a kingdom, then one like me has gained it;
If it be death, then I have not felt pain.

41. Only a death in glory destroys me -
One who reddens the swords' blades with delight.

42. Lavish, expending generosities,
Ever rising to the summits' ridge.

43. We are a people whom God allotted
Humiliations, and we consented to the decree.

44. Only our lifespans fell short
Because we disdain to die of old age.

45. Half a person's life is dream, and the
Reasonable man realizes it's like a dream.