1. Oh you who reside in encampments, near at hand,
Your abode reminds me now of the days of youth.

2. Will you never cease remembering a folk of a house,
As though their vestiges were inscribed on leaves?

3. By the life of Abū l-Ghuwānī, never did Sulaimā
Find comfort in a winter camp, or in youths.

4. You disappear from sight, then shine forth at dawn
Through rifts in clouds, like the sun when it peers.

5. As though you were a star in the nightly heavens
That shoots from pointing Pleiades, a falling star.

6. Nights whose darkness is made to rain upon you
Silent, deadly, polished and sharpened arrows.

7. When will the day ever come when I stay my tears,
Fearing my companions will chide me?

8. When my camel litters pass by Dhū Khushub
The people of Najd keep their distance from me.

9. A stranger, when among the tribes of Tammim,
Though estrangement does not shame my clan.

10. Al‐Farazdaq knew full well my people were wont
To prepare their moral bequests for censure.

11. They sheathe wars in violations, iniquities,
And acts as unseemly as pelting pebbles.

12. When our fathers warred, and yours, they exposed
Which of us were the true polytheists.

13. So they left you clerical garb, and left us
The tethering of steeds and canopies.

14. Zealots of Zubayr, you duped that pompous lout,
As mirages beguile the wistful wanderer.

15. Had Zubayr allied with us, by God, Zubayr
Would not have despaired of returning home.

16. Before him there would have bowed the humped backs
Of swelling waves, the motes made humid clouds.

17. Never would the Nawāḥid women of Quraysh
Have ceased their laments and rent their raiment.

18. Are we not the truest neighbors, and the most
Noble in the melee of clashing swords?

19. The most praiseworthy when praised for glories;
The most faithful to pacts when times grow hard?

20. We showed our mettle on the Day of Khafīfah,
When the horses’ chests crashed through the armor.

21. They advanced against us, took by false entitlement
In the fog of war the sons of the tyrant.

22. Yet al‐Farazdaq attained no special place
Among Tammim, no preference, through his ties.

23. I am the scion of the undying Khālids,
And of the lofty and firm summit Sakhr.

24. My glorious ancestors ennobled me;
The branches exalted what was once the root.

25. The Ya‘rub clan—they claimed long ago to take
All your honorable deeds for their own.

26. So do not boast, you abject, faint-hearted one,
Disappointed, whose screen is ripped through.

27. If Tammim recounts its glories, you will be
Brought down low, by a hyena, by the fangs of a wolf.

28. The sword of Abū Farazdaq—you know it well—
Never misses the neck-veins when it strikes.

29. We saved you at Najb, when you sought refuge
Behind Sa‘d on the day the hounds attacked.

30. Will you forget, at Rimādah, Sa‘d’s onslaught,
When he advanced enfolded in iron mail?

31. Abu Faras, will you not forsake lechery,
Or quit your swilling of liquor’s bitter draught?

32. She blamed you, warned you of violating the law,
Then lost hope that you might ever change your ways.

33. No pure prize was Sa‘d to grant legitimacy
To your misdeeds, no cover for your sins.

34. At the gatherings of Qays you were put to shame
By Sa‘d—God spare you his piercing blades!

35. You lavished praise on Sa‘d unequally,
So heap upon them more gifts, earn their favor!

36. They killed Zubayr, yet you raised no outcry,
And eulogized the Jailer and his kin.

37. You tried me and so learned that I am not
One to waver at the gambling arrow’s cast.

38. My throw came first; untainted was my face,
While the grip of my crooked fang was a crushing vise.

39. I will recall what you know of Hunaidah,
And extol Jailer’s clan and the terrace-roof.

40. A disgraceful rout from Ḥumaidah was your lot,
When the polished Indian swords rained down their blows.

41. So they took the choice portions of the fattened camel,
And you were left the vultures’ leavings.

42. To us belong Qays, while to you—what day,
If the wings of the eagles run red with carnage?

43. Can you compare Abū Jubaīr’s valor in combat
To Ka‘b’s, or the savagery of his she-wolves?

44. I found the gravel of Hawāzin to be worthless,
And you, O Ibn Shi‘rah, to be a shore with shallow pools.

45. Among Ghatafān, beware their protective zeal,
The lions of Ghaiḍ, roaming the thickets.

46. Have you not heard of the steeds of Bani Nufayl
And the steeds of Bani Hubāb when they ride to war?

47. They drove the Bani Jusham clan of Bakr
To Al-Liwa after the incident at Quza Valley.

48. Glory to the intrepid heroes who plunge into battle,
Possessed of might and lofty ambition!

49. They stride with their swords against their enemies,
Blasting them with continuous, cleaving blows.

50. Stop your threats, for Qays will repel you
From our sanctuary inviolable.

51. Have you not seen what befalls those who lambaste me,
When words run short of protecting them?

52. Every tribe curses them when debate shifts
And the thrust and parry of speech begin.

53. Each one I have made to drink a draught of poison
From the deadly fount of my dripping fangs.