1. O eye, weep for Tubba son of Humayyir
With copious tears like a gushing stream

2. So that some ladies may weep for him
With flowing tears of sorrow

3. They heard his passionate cry and it reminded them
For nothing evokes sorrow like remembrance

4. It was as if the finest of young men, Tubba, had not traveled
Through Najd or rode out at dawn

5. He did not fetch sweet water when it appeared
Beautiful in the morning in the sandy wilderness

6. He did not defeat his clamorous opponent and fill
The leather buckets on the day of great turmoil

7. He did not know horses with armor that he led
Joyfully between encampments, so skillful

8. And a barren desert where he lost his way
You crossed the awe of ghosts with a caravan

9. They lead a group like sprinters, made radiant
By their departure and the travel of the estranged rider

10. So when the enemy's land appeared, you watered it
With pure, filtered remains of the treasured stocks

11. And when they recoiled in alarm, you surrounded them
With the guard's sword - its blow made no weaker

12. Insistent as the striking of stone on flint
When the kindling of war's blaze brought strife

13. So they submitted with long necks, and it frightened them -
Fair chains, thick and interlinked

14. Do you not see that the slave kills his lord
Yet the slave's zeal appears without pretense?

15. You killed a man whose spear would not fall
When the horses plunged into the breaking fray

16. So alas for the passion and alas for the dew
And alas for the polished sword!

17. Oh how many afflicted you have answered and seekers
You have given to, and good and evil you have known

18. Thus you attained what you wanted by force
And the might of an obstinate, fierce tyrant