1. Love called you and the landmarks misled you
And how can one resist fate and old age?

2. I stood in the courtyard altered by time
With acquaintances changed and foreign guards

3. I asked about his people, what befell them
Does inquiry return shouted down, muzzled?

4. An ancient icon worn as if it were
Remnants of revelation gnawed by foreigners

5. It watered and revived a barren land
So a resurgent torrent revived the valley

6. Abodes protected by whitewash and reed
And every affrighted mouse takes cover

7. If neighbors of a clan fear dishonor
Then our neighbors—their might protects the noble

8. Oh days of yore now cut off, springs now blocked,
And night, once friendly, has turned inky black

9. Oh many a Thursday you’ve defeated hosts
And many a leaning man now stands erect

10. My she-camel carries me, shod with iron,
Her hooves strike the pebbles but she fears no clash

11. Trustworthy in night journeys, returning riders
Her flanks toss them while the saddle creaks

12. She charges ahead toward dire straits dauntless,
Not fearing the slings and arrows loosed at her

13. When you come to a great people after my day
To whom the greatest beings bow down

14. Champions guarding their wards from all wrong
Never claiming what the boaster claims

15. Leaders plunging amidst the fray in battle
When the gleam of swords whitens the skulls

16. Heroes of Jibreen whom the meadows nurtured
And the sharp spears forged in its valleys

17. Father of Sand, who humbled kings, son of Zamil
Feared in stratagems that confound the mind

18. A sword who quenches the thirst of every sword,
When the doves take cover fearing harm

19. And Zamil, lord of bounty and true faith
To whom even generous kings bow down

20. They ruled over lands and claimed the heights
And scaled heights beyond all riches’ reach

21. Stalwart lions, heroic old warriors
Like mountains, meadows, seas of green

22. They are the lions though to them bow down
The cave lions when they roar and clash

23. They are seas though their hands, when seas are wroth
Hurl forth billows no clouds could ever match

24. For their way is to win kingdoms and glory
And their nature is to give, to be noble

25. Let me tell you, company of goodness, what Fate
By God’s decree brought to pass—God decides all

26. A sword came to us—its blade was conflict
Dragging carnage, its sea a frothing turmoil

27. Hoping to swallow Oman in one battle
But God’s judgment stands fast in the wild

28. On a day when the iron horses were roused
To spill blood as not even clouds could spill

29. Throwing warriors about like camel livers,
Their sharpened spears and keen blades cutting deep

30. So they came like the swelling sea whose swells
And we came to meet them, jostling for first spear

31. When both forces closed to give battle, drawing
Swords like doves swooping down to take the grain

32. We and God’s House were facing them: our band
Of horse and men when the melee began

33. When the affair took a bad turn I stood aside
At Jiflah, for none save God protects from harm

34. I scanned my army that I had mustered
Yet my ill-omened plan availed me nothing

35. I bared my sword, my reliance on God alone,
For He who decides all would decide the outcome

36. I knew my appointed hour had not yet come
That if I did not defend, none would defend

37. For he who shuns death with honor will surely die
Abjectly, and misfortune will be his fate

38. I charged them as their mass leaned against me
Though my resolve the greatest deeds did not match

39. I scattered them above and below the valley
As coins spray from a purse when it rips in two

40. With a strike that bared the skull from its seat
And sundered arms defending from their joints

41. With a stab like mouths of wells smashed so their curbs
Broke, though stoppered before with heavy wood

42. I couched my honed spear and gashed his belly
Emptying his saddle though he tightly gripped

43. I bore down with my sword on a second mailed foe
Who fell dead with his lips pressed to the dust

44. I engaged a third spear and stretched him out
Defiant on the ground, his might brought to naught

45. I caught Ukail son of Aziz with a blow.
He fell dead; no life was left in his body

46. With my sword I clipped the wings of the braggart
Quda’i, though talismans did not protect him

47. He lay there convulsing, his death throes heaving,
Torn by the hyenas under the empty sky

48. So they faltered and flagged and broke and fled
As my treasures once fled from me, in panic

49. While Hassam’s sword fled from my sword’s slashing
Retreating and advancing, blaming his soul

50. With my sword dripping blood from each edge
And Jiflah ringing with the clash of iron

51. Bearing their marks but myself made of hardy steel
When resolves are hardened there in the fray

52. For what destroys the foe is God who exalts us
And they cannot exalt themselves if God destroys us

53. Whether you make peace or defeat me, still
I am sincere in friendship, steadfast

54. I look on you with affection, absent or present
I yearn for you—God knows the unseen!

55. I oppose your enemies and love your beloved
No blamer nor critic could turn me from you

56. Why do you abandon me in times of woe
Though your gallantry should stand by me always?

57. You left us so the foe’s hand grasped for more
And the hateful aggressor rose against us

58. Strike fear in their hearts to bow their necks
To you forever!—for they are deaf, hard of hearing

59. Crush the soul of mischief with a fearsome raid
That scatters them, their drinking cups in pieces

60. Rain upon them a torrent of your punishment
Perhaps this oppression may be brought to an end

61. If you do not rout them with your might
Then neither counsel nor fear of you will stand

62. If a man does not begin by crushing his foe
One day he will surely regret and lament

63. So be as I think you to be, for my hopes
In you are great—a friendship of old standing

64. May the Divine protect you and aid you always
And be your triumphant backer—God is gracious!