لَعَمرُ أَبيكَ لا أَلقى اِبنَ عَمٍّ

عَلى الحَدَثانِ خَيراً مِن بَغيضِ

By your father's life, I will not find a cousin's son

Better than Baghdad upon the two meadows

أَقَلُّ مَلامَةً وَأَعَزُّ نَصراً

إِذا ما جِئتَ بِالأَمرِ المَريضِ

Of less blame and more glorious victory

When you bring me troubling news

كَساني حِلَّةً وَحَبا بِعِنسٍ

أَبُسُّ بِها إِذا اِضطَرَبَت غُروضي

Like a robe and love for an ear of wheat

I grasp when my poems are disturbed

غَداةَ جَنى بَنِيَّ عَلَيَّ جُرماً

وَكَيفَ يَدايَ بِالحَربِ العَضوضِ

The morning the crimes of my tribe against me occurred

And how can my hands deal with difficult war

فَقَد سَدَّ السَبيلَ أَبو حُمَيدٍ

كَما سَدَّ المُخاطَبَةَ اِبنُ بيضِ

For Abu Humaid has blocked the way

As the son of Bayd blocked addressing me

فِإِن تَمنَع سُهولَ الأَرضِ مِنّي

فَإِنّي سالِكٌ سُبُلَ العَروضِ

If the easy roads of earth are denied me

Then I will take the paths of verse