أَيَدري الرَبعُ أَيَّ دَمٍ أَراقا

وَأَيَّ قُلوبِ هَذا الرَكبِ شاقا

Does the desert know whose blood it shed

Does the ruined campsite know whose blood it has spilled?

And whose hearts this caravan has wearied

And whose hearts, among this caravan, it has thrilled with longing?

لَنا وَلِأَهلِهِ أَبَداً قُلوبٌ

تَلاقى في جُسومٍ ما تَلاقى

For us and their kin, hearts shall never

We, and the dwellers of this place, possess hearts that forever

Meet in bodies that shall never unite

Meet in spirit, though our bodies may never meet.

وَما عَفَتِ الرِياحُ لَهُ مَحَلّاً

عَفاهُ مَن حَدا بِهِمِ وَساقا

The winds could not erase their abode

It was not the winds that erased the traces of this home;

He who guided them and led them erased it

Rather, he who sang to the camels and drove them away effaced it.

فَلَيتَ هَوى الأَحِبَّةِ كانَ عَدلاً

فَحَمَّلَ كُلَّ قَلبٍ ما أَطاقا

If only the love of loved ones were just

Would that the passion of lovers were just,

Each heart would carry what it can endure

Burdening every heart only with what it could bear.

نَظَرتُ إِلَيهِمُ وَالعَينُ شَكرى

فَصارَت كُلُّها لِلدَمعِ ماقا

I looked at them, with grateful eyes

I gazed at them, my eyes drunk with tears,

That have now, for tears, become hollows

Until my whole being became a channel for weeping.

وَقَد أَخَذَ التَمامُ البَدرُ فيهِم

وَأَعطاني مِنَ السَقَمِ المُحاقا

The full moon's perfection was in them

Perfection has claimed the full moon in their midst,

And gave me a fatal, incurable disease

While bestowing upon me the waning of sickness.

وَبَينَ الفَرعِ وَالقَدَمَينِ نورٌ

يَقودُ بِلا أَزِمَّتِها النِياقا

A light between branch and feet

Between her tresses and her feet there shines a light,

Guiding without bridle the she-camels

That leads the she-camels onward without their reins.

وَطَرفٌ إِن سَقى العُشّاقَ كَأساً

بِها نَقصٌ سَقانيها دِهاقا

An eye that offered lovers a cup

And a glance that, if it pours a cup for lovers,

Whose pouring diminished those who pour

Giving them short measure, pours mine overflowing.

وَخَصرٌ تَثبُتُ الأَبصارُ فيهِ

كَأَنَّ عَلَيهِ مِن حَدَقِ نِطاقا

A waist on which sights are fixed

A waist upon which all gazes are fastened,

As if it is girded with belt of pearls

As if the pupils of eyes formed a belt around it.

سَلي عَن سيرَتي فَرَسي وَسَيفي

وَرُمحي وَالهَمَلَّعَةِ الدِفاقا

Ask about my character and my horse, sword,

Ask my horse and sword about my way of life,

Spear and the polished well-aimed arrows

Ask my spear, and the swift, rushing she-camel.

تَرَكنا مِن وَراءِ العيسِ نَجداً

وَنَكَّبنا السَماوَةَ وَالعِراقا

We left behind us the Najd deserts

We left the lands of Najd behind our white camels,

And avoided the Samawah and Iraq

And turned aside from Samawah and Iraq.

فَما زالَت تَرى وَاللَيلُ داجٍ

لِسَيفِ الدَولَةِ المَلِكِ ائتِلاقا

Still the night, as it darkens, sees

Through the dark of night, she ceased not to see

The sword of the dawlah, the king, unsheathed

The radiance of Sayf al-Dawla, the King.

أَدِلَّتُها رِياحُ المِسكِ مِنهُ

إِذا فَتَحَت مَناخِرَها اِنتِشاقا

The musk-scented winds made it fragrant

Her guides were the winds of musk wafting from him,

When it opened its nostrils deeply inhaling

Whenever she opened her nostrils to inhale.

أَباحَكِ أَيُّها الوَحشُ الأَعادي

فَلِم تَتَعَرَّضينَ لَهُ الرِفاقا

Which of you wild beasts of enemies

O beasts of the wild, he has granted you the enemies as prey;

Dared to face his friendly caravan

Why then do you threaten his travelling companions?

وَلَو تَبَّعتِ ما طَرَحَت قَناهُ

لَكَفَّكِ عَن رَذايانا وَعاقا

If you but followed what his bow dispensed

Had you followed the harvest his spear cast down,

It would suffice you and protect you

It would have satisfied you, keeping you from our steeds.

وَلَو سِرنا إِلَيهِ في طَريقٍ

مِنَ النيرانِ لَم نَخَفِ اِحتِراقا

Had we travelled towards him on a path

Even if we journeyed to him on a path

Of fire, we would have feared no burning

Made of fire, we would fear no burning.

إِمامٌ للِائمَّةِ مِن قُرَيشٍ

إِلى مَن يَتَّقونَ لَهُ شِقاقا

An imam leading the leaders of Quraysh

He is an Imam to the leaders of Quraysh,

For those who dread his displeasure or schism

The one against whom they fear to incite discord.

يَكونُ لَهُم إِذا غَضِبوا حُساماً

وَلِلهَيجاءِ حينَ تَقومُ ساقا

When angry, their sword, but when calm

He becomes their sword when they are angered,

Their mercy even on the tumultuous mob

And the pillar of war when battle is joined.

فَلا تَستَنكِرَنَّ لَهُ اِبتِساماً

إِذا فَهِقَ المَكَرُّ دَماً وَضاقا

So do not blame him for grinning

Do not wonder at his smiling face

When deceit bleeds and is straitened

When the battlefield overflows with blood and grows narrow.

فَقَد ضَمِنَت لَهُ المُهَجَ العَوالي

وَحَمَّلَ هَمَّهُ الخَيلَ العِتاقا

The sublime ambitions guaranteed him

For the high spears have guaranteed him the souls of foes,

And his free-spirited horses bore his worries

And he has cast his burden upon noble steeds.

إِذا أُنعِلنَ في آثارِ قَومٍ

وَإِن بَعُدوا جَعَلنَهُمُ طِراقا

When he alights at a people's ruins

When they are shod to pursue a fleeing tribe,

Though far, he makes them neighbourly

Though they be far, they trample them like sandals.

وَإِن نَقَعَ الصَريخُ إِلى مَكانٍ

نَصَبنَ لَهُ مُؤَلَّلَةً دِقاقا

If a scream reaches a place

And if a cry for help rises from a place,

He erects at it many speared standards

They prick up sharp, attentive ears towards it.

فَكانَ الطَعنُ بَينَهُما جَواباً

وَكانَ اللَبثُ بَينَهُما فُواقا

So between them the answer was a stab

Then the thrust of spears becomes the only answer,

And between them the delay was strangling

And the delay is but the briefest pause.

مُلاقِيَةً نَواصيها المَنايا

مُعَوَّدَةً فَوارِسُها العِناقا

Encountering their death blow

Their forelocks meet with destinies of death,

Embracing their final resting place

Their riders accustomed to the embrace of battle.

تَبيتُ رِماحُهُ فَوقَ الهَوادي

وَقَد ضَرَبَ العَجاجُ لَها رِواقا

His spears spend the night atop the valleys

His spears pass the night atop the saddles,

And the tent-pegs have erected his pavilions

While the dust of war has pitched a tent around them.

تَميلُ كَأَنَّ في الأَبطالِ خَمراً

عُلِلنَ بِها اِصطِباحاً وَاِغتِباقا

They sway as if the heroes are drunk

They sway, as though the heroes were drunk on wine,

Debilitated at dawn yet intertwined at dusk

Dosed with it at dawn and at dusk.

تَعَجَّبَتِ المُدامُ وَقَد حَساها

فَلَم يَسكَر وَجادَ فَما أَفاقا

The wine was amazed that it did not intoxicate him

The wine marvelled when he sipped it:

And he was generous without being drunk

He did not intoxicate, yet his generosity knew no sobriety.

أَقامَ الشِعرُ يَنتَظِرُ العَطايا

فَلَمّا فاقَتِ الأَمطارَ فاقا

Poetry waited expecting gifts

Poetry stood waiting for its rewards,

But when his rains exceeded all rains

But when his gifts outstripped the rain, poetry surpassed itself.

وَزَنّا قيمَةَ الدَهماءِ مِنهُ

وَوَفَّينا القِيانَ بِهِ الصَداقا

We valued the price of his bounty

We weighed the worth of the dark steed he gave,

And fulfilled the measures due to him

And paid with it the dowry for the singing girls.

وَحاشا لِاِرتِياحِكَ أَن يُبارى

وَلِلكَرَمِ الَّذي لَكَ أَن يُباقى

Never could your joy be matched

Far be it that your joyous generosity be rivaled,

Nor your generosity that remains

Or that the nobility you possess be outdone.

وَلَكِنّا نُداعِبُ مِنكَ قَرماً

تَراجَعَتِ القُرومُ لَهُ حِقاقا

Rather we flirt with some of your bounty

But we jest with a lordly stallion like you,

The necks recoiled from it in obligation

Before whom other lords retreat like frightened colts.

فَتىً لا تَسلُبُ القَتلى يَداهُ

وَيَسلُبُ عَفوُهُ الأَسرى الوَثاقا

A man who does not rob the dead of their hands

A warrior whose hands never strip the slain,

And whose pardon robs the captives of their shackles

Yet whose pardon strips the shackles from the captives.

وَلَم تَأتِ الجَميلَ إِلَيَّ سَهواً

وَلَم أَظفَر بِهِ مِنكَ اِستِراقا

You never intentionally declined goodness to me

You did not grant me favors by mere oversight,

Nor did I gain it from you by stealing

Nor did I win them from you by stealth.

فَأَبلِغ حاسِدِيَّ عَلَيكَ أَنّي

كَبا بَرقٌ يُحاوِلُ بي لَحاقا

So inform those who envy me your patronage

So tell those who envy me your favor,

That I am a striking lightning pursuing them

That even lightning stumbles trying to catch my stride.

وَهَل تُغني الرَسائِلُ في عَدوٍّ

إِذا ما لَم يَكُنَّ ظُبىً رِقاقا

Can messages avail with an enemy

Do letters avail against a foe,

If they are not sharp piercing arrows?

If they are not written with fine-edged swords?

إِذا ما الناسُ جَرَّبَهُم لَبيبٌ

فَإِنّي قَد أَكَلتُهُمُ وَذاقا

When the people test a wise one

When a wise man puts mankind to the test,

I have tasted and experienced them

He finds, as I have tasted and devoured,

فَلَم أَرَ وُدَّهُم إِلّا خِداعاً

وَلَم أَرَ دينَهُم إِلّا نِفاقا

I saw nothing in them but deceit

That their friendship is nothing but deception,

And nothing in their religion but hypocrisy

And their faith nothing but hypocrisy.

يُقَصِّرُ عَن يَمينِكَ كُلُّ بَحرٍ

وَعَمّا لَم تُلِقهُ ما أَلاقا

Every sea falls short of your right hand's reach

Every ocean falls short of your right hand's bounty,

And of what you have not attained, they fall short

And what the sea withholds is less than what you bestow.

وَلَولا قُدرَةُ الخَلّاقِ قُلنا

أَعَمداً كانَ خَلقُكَ أَم وِفاقا

Had it not been for the Creator's power we would say

Were it not for the Creator’s power, we would ask:

Was your creation by design or concord?

Was your creation by design, or a miraculous accord?

فَلا حَطَّت لَكَ الهَيجاءُ سَرجاً

وَلا ذاقَت لَكَ الدُنيا فِراقا

So neither did lunacy saddle your horse

May war never force you to remove your saddle,

Nor did the world taste separation from you

And may the world never suffer the taste of your loss.