ألا حي الديار بسعد إني — Jarir

Lo, greet the dwellings at Saʿd, for I

love the dwellings for love of Fāṭimah.

Those departing intended to grieve me,

so they stirred the rift in my heart, and it flew apart.

Your tears indeed overflowed on the day at Qaww,

for a parting that called for remembrance.

I spend the night watching every star

that comes into view, rising high and then sinking low.

His heart yearns, and the eye encounters

the welling and streaming of tears.

When your people settle, O Sulaymā,

at Dārat Ṣulṣul, they make the visit a long journey.

So the heart calls us toward love of her,

while Jahmah's people dislike her being visited.

As though Mujāshiʿ were a feeble herd of old she-camels

that descended to al-Harm, below Sarār.

When they settle at Zarūd, they build there

houses of abasement and short tent-poles.

Streams of disgrace flow over them,

and they have been a basin for its foulness.

And was al-Farazdaq anything but a monkey

struck by thunderbolts, so it spun around?

And whenever you settled in a people's abode,

you departed in disgrace and left shame behind.

You married Nawār, yet did not wish

an avenger to gain redress for Nawār's father.

So your religion, Farazdaq, is Laylā's religion:

she visits the smith on pilgrimage and lesser pilgrimage.

So the smith, after coupling with Laylā, kept

sending sparks flying onto your moustaches.

You milked our war against you, and it flowed

with clotted blood, slow to run dry.

Had I not already warned, at Ḥafīr,

the sons of Qurṭ and their brute Shuqār?

I shall pledge the verse-carriers, O son of Ḥādijah,

to you, as far as reins stretch and steeds gallop.

Those who would enslave me see, before reaching me,

the pools of death and deep, engulfing seas.

Are we not—as Maʿadd has learned—

on terror's morning, the readiest to guard our honor,

and hardest-striking with swords when there meet

the horses' foreparts, parched and burning,

and strongest in spear-thrusts when spearheads cross,

with a slender spear when the dust rises,

and most praised for hospitality, and mightiest in aid,

and strongest in defending our flanks, most protective of a neighbor?

We raged on the day of Ṭikhfah, as you well know,

and there we shackled kings by force.

Our horsemen are ʿUtaybah and Ibn Saʿd,

and commanders of cavalry bands wherever they marched.

And among us are the two Maʿqils and ʿAbd Qays,

and our horseman who safeguarded our honor.

So the sons of ʿIqāl can hope for neither the stars

nor the radiant moon when it shines.

And we are those who kindle, at every frontier

where the foe is feared, a fire against you.

Do you forget al-Zubayr and ʿAwf's pledge,

and ʿAwf, when he overpowered you, then acted unjustly?