1. Does the encampment, whose dwellings now lie empty,

    answer through its echo, or give its questioner news?

  2. And can a lovesick man, whose yearning has doubled his grief,

    stem the tears that have streamed down in torrents?

  3. Help me against an eye whose sleep is scant,

    that has rebelled, and against a heart whose torments are many.

  4. He whose nearness we cherish withdraws and grows distant,

    and he with whom we keep ties cuts us off through his desertion.

  5. Victory has indeed been granted—and is their foremost due—

    to the armies of Abu al-Jaysh, whose sword-blades are keen.

  6. He was shielded from his foes until their scheming came to an end

    by Tughj ibn Juff, whose squadrons were poised to strike,

  7. at Quniya, lofty in its setting, when the spears

    at lofty Quniya were bloodied at their tips.

  8. And on the day of the fire in Maluriyya, there came

    for its inhabitants a death swift and unhindered.

  9. And captives were set apart from Burghuth, as though

    their successive bands were successive bands of gazelle herds.

  10. And his cavalry has driven out the cavalry of the Domestikos,

    as the coming year drives out the year gone by.

  11. So there is no stronghold his swords have not seized,

    and no booty his mighty hosts have not sought out.

  12. Whenever Tughj marches at the head of an army,

    whose neighing horses answer its bellowing camels at nightfall,

  13. you see death finding an easy path to the foes,

    with the army's clouds of battle-dust raised before the watchers.

  14. When frowning Time grows dark, it is illumined

    by a radiant young man, sweet in his ways.

  15. When the peoples seek his rank in glory,

    Tubbaʿ and his chieftains deny it to them.

Sol 6.1