1. Welcome, O fair ones, easy game though niggardly,
Brought nigh by horsemen and camel-men bold.

2. They killed without reason; they dallied without excuse.
When we met, greeting turned to disdain,

3. And kindness turned spiteful in loyal hearts.
As if, after them, the censurers of youth

4. Struck reason down, a wanderer lost, bewildered.
The steed champs at his tether in the wide plain, restless,

5. His mind set on grazing at dawn with the camels.
They shot him a glance, which urged him to rise,

6. With a smooth unchafed neck, his reins cut free.
They seek my healing, though my pains increase

7. For calamities are allies to my ills.
They've tried to steal my heart from its love -

8. But the heart beside the white ones is perplexed.
These fair gazelles with shapely limbs

9. Have fettered my hoary head with strong bonds.
The glances of these soft-eyed beauties

10. Win advocates for their coyness and disdain.
Their beauty is natural, no borrowed ornament;

11. The kohl around their eyes no powdered kohl.
One sauntered heedless; I followed, lovesick,

12. From my riding camel up to their litters so tall.
Is it not enough that after them my tears

13. Make streams that gain replenishment from the hills?
Accursed! Would that God destroy the game of youth

14. And rid me of those shackles that have hobbled me.
A pampered darling of night with blackest hair

15. To whom my white hairs were guideposts to death.
"The eyelids," they said, "crave the white roses' love."

16. Far astray is the seeker of white roses' love.
I say to a lad who meets me, "Gently, gently, boy;

17. Sustenance cannot be rushed; there is time enough."
By travelling from encampments bearing rich spoils.

18. Consider sustenance - it seeks me out at home,
Though I stir not my family nor ready my camels.

19. Each day religion's order rains upon me
Free-flowing graces, unvisited, unlimited.

20. They water me, though the clouds of their munificence
Are unsought, their forerunners unfathomable, unseen.

21. At home I gained increase beyond all expectation,
While raiders return home with meager spoils.

22. From every radiant palm I never hoped to touch,
Nor distant hand I thought to reach,

23. The sun's rays have streamed to me, rising,
Their dawning forever renewed, without end.

24. Each day His bounty renews: no camel of mine there,
No indeed do I drive them, no camel, no driver.

25. He returns me clothed though I stretched out no hand,
Nor set snares of vain hope to entrap prosperity.

26. You reined in my reason, though tempests blew,
And set my course aright when I swerved aside.

27. You raised my status to sublime heights,
Subjected disasters, and brought triumphs to me.

28. Have you left any wishes to wishers now,
Any hopes for the hopeful, the seeking of goals?

29. Your benevolence left no room for ornament by my hands;
Jewels are only donned publicly when prosperity wanes.

30. The robes of glory you bestow have spared me
Fine raiment or the most splendid adornment.

31. O people, you are the breath to revive us in adversity,
The shining stars in the darkness of calamities that befall.

32. You give us success when misfortunes miss their mark,
When, in the hands of heroes, the keen sword goes blunt.

33. When absent, people are like a necklace without pearls,
A system without order, eyelids without kohl.

34. Like day without sun by which to see,
Or dark night without moonlight or flame.

35. Of a band who reached eminence, though few,
Outstripping in the race the quickest steeds.

36. They met adversity without fear or frailty,
And terrifying events without shock or recoil.

37. They soared on the wings of snarling eagles,
Pasturing freely between white and tawny camels.

38. In a terrifying swarm, like the arid wastes of the sea,
Stirred up by rumbling thunder pounding the dunes.

39. Its torrents like the torrents of floodwaters,
With thick clotted blood shedding freely, streaming.

40. The King of Kings casts them, reproaching their neglect
To follow the proper course, misleading paths eschewing.

41. Did not lightning flash warn men against you,
Still complaining today of its burning in their ribs?

42. With death's swords unleashed and fate preordained,
Your command pierces necks and strikes at the vertebrae's base.

43. Shortened in their breasts is the length of your spear,
While the spears of others shorten not, nor overextend.

44. Their heads flew off until you appointed them
Positions as the withered branches of canals.

45. In their humiliation, they aimed to abuse your glory,
Like the sculptor, with his pickaxe carving the mountainside.

46. Where are the thick-roped necks that rise haughtily,
And the docked limbs striking with limp-wristed blows?

47. Never again will they return to raise the long necks of she-camels,
When hands fall short of the miles-long camel litters.

48. Just as they were that day at Yamm, swords flashing,
When the neck was severed from the nape with each blow.

49. They dyed every murky valley with blood unsheathed
From half-closed eyes, like the torrents streaming freely.

50. Until they returned leaving no enemy chanting slogans,
Neither words nor deeds left to answer with.

51. The piercing swords struck the joints of shoulders
Of grunting camels, whose humps had wasted away.

52. Allah has decreed your glory is endless,
And that you remain in this world forever.

53. Settled in an edifice that shall never crumble,
A enduring, lofty status that shall never change.

54. Given free rein to enjoy life’s bounty fully,
You surpassed all eras of days and dynasties.

55. And whenever a year passed or an epoch elapsed,
Time returned you to your early days again.