أعاذل ما بالي أرى الحي ودعوا — Jarir

O reproacher, what ails me? I see the clan has said farewell,

and spent the night intent on their destinations, then scattered.

When Shaʿthāʾ is mentioned, his heart takes flight

with love's flight, and his eye overflows with tears.

He longed for her love, indulging a vain hope,

and the lover's needs arise, only to be denied.

And had she wished, she would surely have offered him

a drink to quench and slake his burning thirst.

And disheveled men on narrow-eyed, slender camels, as though they were

bows of shiryān wood, pared and patched.

When they lift the tent's folded flap, you see it

fluttering like a bird beating its wings in a snare.

You see the men within it holding fast to one side,

while the wind has another side of it, which shudders.

Listen, O people: do not let Mujāshiʿ daunt you,

for bamboo and castor plants are sturdier than they are.

For they abandoned the noble neighbor, and I cannot imagine

a neighbor as entitled to protection as that one being forsaken.

Quraysh says, after Mujāshiʿ's treachery,

'May God curse al-Zubayr's neighbors!'—and they repeated their lament.

For had he called on Yarbūʿ when he called on them,

his scattered belongings would surely all have returned.

So return the Messenger's disciple and his belongings

to his family; then boast afterward—or refrain.

Have you not seen the house of baseness among Mujāshiʿ,

abiding until the whole of time has passed?

We rose high, as the stars rise above them,

and he fell short, until his two hands had no means of defense.

If you ask the two clans of Nizār, you will be told,

when war rises, who harms and who helps.

And we surely shield the weaklings—if they would thank us—

from the mountain passes of death, while the spears quiver.

We encamp at the feared frontier, while you are

a mirage wavering over a hard, level plain.

And ʿAmr drives you from its protected pasture, and ʿĀmir too;

so your only forging-place is beside your bellows.