أَرمى وَجَدِّكَ مِن رامي بَني ثُعَلٍ

حَتفٌ لَدَيهِ إِزاءُ الحَوضِ وَالعُقُرُ

The skills of your archers, O tribe of Tha'labah,

Are shields against which the water troughs and ewes huddle.

يَغشاهُمُ الكُرهُ في الدُنيا فَآدِبُهُم

مِنهُ كَآدِبِ قَيسٍ لَيسَ يَنتَقِرُ

They attack the enemies with loathing in this life, so they discipline them,

Disciplining them as Qays disciplined those who would not make amends.

إِن عُوِّضوا بِذُنوبٍ أُسلِفَت سَقَراً

فَلَم تَرُمهُم عَلى عِلّاتِها سَقَرُ

If they are requited for sins which earned them Hellfire,

Hellfire does not pity them for their sins.

أَغناهُمُ اللَهُ مِن مالٍ وَأَفقَرَهُم

مِنَ الرَشادِ فَما اِستَغنَوا بَل اِفتَقَروا

God enriched them with wealth but impoverished them

Of guidance, so they did not become independent, but rather grew dependent.

وَيَحقِرونَ أَخا الإِعدامِ بَينَهُمُ

وَإِنَّ أَفضَلَ مِنهُم لِلَّذي اِحتَقَروا

They look down on the brother of death among them,

Yet the one they look down upon is better than them.

كَأَنَّما العَمرُ سِلكٌ مَدَّهُ قَدَرٌ

فيهِ الفَواقِرُ لا دُرٌّ وَلا فِقَرُ

It is as if lifetime is a path which Fate has extended,

In which there are neither pearls nor poverty.

وَلاجَتِ النارُ كَالشَقراءِ يَحبِسُها

عَن مُهرِها القَيدُ وَهناً فَهيَ لا تَقِرُ

The fire burned fiercely like an unmarried woman

Whom the fetters prevent from her bridewealth, and so she is not still.

بَدَت بِلَيلٍ كَعَينِ الديكِ عَن شَحطٍ

أَو عُرفِهَ بِمَحَلٍّ دَونَهُ أُقَرُ

It appeared at night like the eye of a cock above the rubbish heap,

Or like its crest in a place below which is a sheep pen.

يُعاقِرُ الراحَ شَربٌ حَولَها سُهُدٌ

تَروي التُرابَ نَجيعاً سُوقُ ما عَقَروا

The wind makes the departing camels quake around it,

Shedding tears copiously where they had camped.