1. Kindness passed us by though it once was our abode
To lovely doves with necklaces of shining pearls

2. Oh, call the gazelles if only we might sport
And were it not for those who watch we would have sported

3. They say, as misfortunes come one after another
Such are the words, as if eyes were upon you

4. Did you not see me showing affection to them
And calling those who slander liars, yet we were not rewarded

5. Whenever you say it is time for us to settle accounts
They are miserly with the present yet promise a debt

6. The Pleiades shine for us like a rainy cloud
When its edges glow, we look upon them delighted

7. We killed the pledges without any collateral
And we exceeded proper bounds and trespassed

8. You remembered—would that you had not recalled—
A time that was an epoch now passed

9. And they shoot hearts with the arrows of jinn
For they aimed at your heart when they shot

10. The ape eludes me when he sees me
Say to the ape, where, where do you elude?

11. Did you see me when my ropes slackened
And someone in earnest asks me, where are they slacking?

12. The death woef has become hot coals
Yet al-Farazdaq's eye is not burning hot

13. And war that the elite are weary of
We made it familiar with our tongues when we met

14. When our efforts are mentioned, you become angry
May your anger at us be prolonged

15. Adolescents with the beards of grown men blab
Having gone astray with no guidance found

16. Your protectors have become our slave girls
And your allies—the tribe of Wulayb—our slaves

17. My reconciliation with the tribe of Wulayb has waned
And my ropes have gone slack though I twist them

18. You know the overlords—if we reject
Their rule we disobey

19. When the Pleiades shine we do not deny
Nor burn the foe when we meet

20. With free rein they remain shading us
While glad of our abode we banish them

21. Were we to gain even your crumbs we would be wealthy
And were al-Zubayr to return to us we would fulfill

22. Do you have equity—no!—for you effeminate ones
With well ropes far apart between them