1. On Shunfara the clouds rain ceaselessly,
Pouring copiously, early rain drizzling.

2. Upon you may there be a recompense like your day at Al-Jaba,
When the gleaming swords were unsheathed around you.

3. That was the day of weakness and compassion,
When you showed compassion though hearts were suffering distress.

4. Death wandered among them as though they were,
Through your staunchness, faint fawn-spotted camels.

5. And the treacherous hidden stab with which you stabbed Murshid
Having an issue through which the probes went astray.

6. When the veils were lifted from her you pitied Murshid,
Her mouth like that of a lone, desolate woman, open.

7. To her the rider inclines as though he were
An outpouring whose ferment the wine had made limpid.

8. So he suffices whom the noble suffices with his resolution,
The free man, like yourself, shows patience.

9. If the soul of Shunfara one day becomes zealous
And there comes to him that which he was wary of before,

10. Then it was no innovation that the like of it should befall one like him
And the rash be made zealous and launch out.

11. He fulfilled his partner’s term, making much of her favors,
Lessening wantonness, while honor was abundant.

12. His resolve relieves him of the distress of fear,
While the white Mailan and the gleaming Batir.

13. The blond, braided, short-tressed Gaidag as though he were
An eagle that swooped down between straight and curved bows.

14. He surges with the surge of the sea—his might is prolonged—
When a first surge from it floods, another follows.

15. If slave girls laugh at you, free women have assuredly
Wept for you, raising shrill cries.

16. And over a high watchtower on which you climbed, observers
To descry raiders or partisans to descry the fugitives.

17. And at a matter like sniffing the two nostrils you chafed,
Gasping from it while the deaths were present.

18. Indeed, were you to meet me after what you see
And will he who has been hidden in the graves meet me?

19. You would find me raiding proudly against you
Whether I am returning or again setting out.

20. Had the birds told me or had I witnessed,
I would have solaced you in affliction, a supporter for you.

21. And if you are taken captive and are sheltering
And are worn out until no plotting avails against you,

22. Until grey hairs make you in the head an aged man,
While your best possession is secure and your provisions are present,

23. The most beautiful kind of death for a man, when he must die some day
And his death is bound to come while he shows patience,

24. Is to lower his voice that every son of a noble
To where you have come inevitably will come.

25. And that the chargers of death run among us—
Whiffs from its events and early matters.

26. So let not Shunfara with his weapons—
The iron and the compactness of his step oft-repeated—

27. Keep far away when the distress of death keeps near,
Together with a free man, noble and patient.