1. Whatever time may make me forget, a sorrow never leaves us:

    a day when he-camels and she-camels converged.

  2. Longing in the heart kept climbing higher,

    until a flood of tears reached the eye's dark pupil.

  3. Where are those who brought al-Nu‘man down in the open,

    or where are Shayban's sons, those crane-like youths?

  4. You married into a base people, in whose breasts lies

    an old grudge, and in whose character lies pettiness.

  5. Tell al-Ukhaytil, now that our race has grown earnest:

    Desist, for falling short is what befits you.

  6. The sun never rises but he is weary,

    nor sets but he has been outstripped.

  7. My soul be the ransom for Qays on the day they bind you,

    when saliva does not moisten al-Akhtal's tongue.

  8. White blades in their hands, gleaming and battle-tested,

    severing heads and cutting necks at the joints.

  9. And the Taghlibites—their sire is a wretched sire,

    as sires go; and their mother is flat-buttocked and girdled.

  10. Beneath the girdles are cross-marked arses,

    like inkwells touched by ink and woolen wadding.

Sol 6.1