ثُمَّ أَقْدَمْتَهُنَّ شُعْثَ النَّوَاصِي

يَتَهادَيْنَ فِي فُضُولِ الدِّلاصِ

Then you brought them with disheveled forelocks,

Swaying with the excess jewelry.

تَحْتَ بِيضٍ كَأَنَّما صَقَلُوها

بالَّذِي أَضْمَرُوا منَ الإِخلاصِ

Under white dresses as if they had polished them,

With what they had concealed of sincerity.

وظباءٍ خاضَتْ بِهِنَّ المَذَاكِي

فِي تِلاعٍ من الدِّماءِ غِصاصِ

And gazelles who waded through the waterholes,

In a flock of blood covered in mud.

يَنْتَعِلْنَ الخدودَ من تَحْتِ حُجْنٍ

قَدْ تَلَفَّفْنَ فِي شُعورِ النَّواصِي

They wore rouge on their cheeks from under the veils,

Wrapped in the hair of their hanging forelocks.

بعدَ ضَرْبٍ مَا قَتْلُهُ لِمُقيدٍ

وطِعانٍ مَا جُرْحُها لِقصاصِ

After a beating, whose murder is not for a prisoner,

And stabbing, whose wounds are not for retaliation.

وابْتِدارِ النَّجاءِ وَهْوَ غَلاءٌ

بنفوسٍ عَلَى الحتوفِ رِخَاصِ

And the crying of the rescued, while it is expensive,

With souls over wispy bodies.

تَنْطِقُ البِيضُ فِي الطُّلى والعَوَالي

فِي الكُلى أَبْشِرِي بِفَوْتِ الخَلاصِ

The white dresses speak in the mounds and highlands,

In the kidneys, give glad tidings of the loss of salvation.

لَوْ رَكِبْتُمْ مِنَّا الرِّياحَ فِراراً

لَتَرَدَّى بكُمْ رُكوبُ المَعاصِي

If you rode the winds in escape,

The riding of disobedience would cast you down.

كمْ دُعيتُمْ أَن لاتَ حِينَ شِقاقٍ

فأَبَيْتُمْ فلاتَ حِينَ مَناصِ

How often you were called when there was conflict,

But you refused, so do not call when in distress.