1. My gaze rose, and I saw lightning

    from Tihama; then my recollection returned.

  2. Those gazing at its radiance say:

    "We see piebald mares grown restive over foals."

  3. Your promises have indeed proved false, Umm Bishr,

    and long have my patience and my waiting lasted.

  4. You hastened to reproach us, while journeying by night

    are our mounts, though your night makes no journey.

  5. So you thought little of what my riding-camels endured,

    and of my journey through the shimmering, barren wastes.

  6. And days that bore down upon the mounts,

    as though their scorching winds were a roaring blaze of fire.

  7. As though upon their skin-folds, at midday,

    lay al-Lit's pitch, or tar welling up.

  8. Al-Ba'ith has indeed come to a dwelling of disgrace,

    nor has al-Farazdaq become one of the best:

  9. a hobbyhorse's jingling bells and a monkey's whiskers,

    and a fire-stick from Qufayra that kindles no fire.

  10. We recognized Qufayra by her two eyebrows,

    and a cut-off stub in her short fingers.

  11. We thrust at one another, and the sons of Tamim said:

    "As though the monkey had plunged from a lofty height!"

  12. Do the smiths of the sons of 'Iqal hope

    for another turn, when my racing has outstripped them?

  13. And the sons of Waqban know that I am

    a powerful leaper through soft sand, resolute across loose ground.

  14. You boasted of Yarbu' and the house of Sa'd,

    yet neither my glory nor my pride did you attain.

  15. Yarbu' has horsemen for every day

    whose sun is hidden by a swirling cloud of dust:

  16. 'Utayba, al-Uhaymir, and the son of Sa'd,

    and 'Attab, and the rider of Dhu al-Khimar.

  17. And on the day of the sons of Judhayma, when we caught up

    at midmorning, between al-Shu'ayba and al-'Aqar.

  18. The faces of Mujashi' were coated with baseness,

    showing plainly upon the neck and the cheek's beard-line.

  19. And allied to the skin of every Mujashi'i

    is a shirt of baseness, not a borrowed one.

  20. Have you been deceived by al-Farazdaq concerning your father,

    and by the mention of two waterskins on a donkey?

  21. We found the house of Dabba among Ma'add

    like the spiny-tailed lizard's burrow, which has no pillars.

  22. We found them base wretches, clinging hangers-on,

    sprung from neither nab' nor nudar wood.

Sol 6.1