إليك كلفنا كل يوم هجيرة — Jarir

Toward you we strove through each day's noonday heat,

A parching, fiercely scorching day, its white rocks blazing,

On pale camels striding across the wilderness, as though they were

Dark sandgrouse of al-Udama, whose remaining pools had dried.

Fifth-day watering wore its caravan thin, until the camels seemed

Choice Indian spear-shafts, their slender canes straightened.

When you spoke to me, Abd al-Aziz, you shielded me from

An age whose ills and stinginess had spread.

So two days of Abd al-Aziz vied in excellence:

On which of his two days, then, can his critics reproach him?

On one day, his steeds protect the Muslims;

And another is for giving: his bounties never miss a day.

And for the Turks, a crushing blow from Abd al-Aziz;

And for the Romans, a day when pregnant women do not carry to term.

So they found Abd al-Aziz no novice,

Nor prone to blunders in whatever he undertakes,

Nor does his grip draw away from the sword's hilt,

When the fainthearted coward's fingertips stiffen.

He draws up both trailing lengths—the skirt of a long mail-coat,

And the length of a sword-belt whose straps have not been shortened.

So he does not neglect his share of this world,

Nor do this world's goods distract him from religion.

So here is a marvel, with no equal among men,

And this is praise whose speaker cannot be belied.

We have refused; affection calls us toward none but you,

And we would trade Ibn Layla for no other friend.

After you came the time of the white calamity, and it struck

At the bone, until its supports surrendered it.

So feather my wing for me, and take me as a hawk,

Whose falcons snatch the very kernels of hearts.