1. أَلَم تَرَ جَنبي عَن فِراشي جَفا بِهِ

    طَوارِقُ مِن هَمٍّ مُسِرٍّ دَخيلُها

    Have you not seen my side driven away from my bed

    by nightly visitants of sorrow whose inward burden is secret?

  2. وَكَم عَرَضَت لي حاجَةٌ فَتَقَيتُها

    بِكَفَّيَّ بَعدَ اليَومِ لا أَستَقيلُها

    And many a need has arisen for me, and I have warded it off

    with my two hands; henceforth I seek no release from it.

  3. إِذا ضَمَّتِ الناسَ المَنازِلُ وَاِلتَقى

    وَرائِيَ طَودا خِندِفٍ وَفُحولُها

    When dwellings gather people in, and there assemble

    behind me Khindif’s two mountains and her stallions.

  4. أَلَسنا بِأَربابٍ لِقَومٍ وَأُمَّةٍ

    خَلائِفُهُم مِنّا وَمِنّا رَسولُها

    Are we not lords over a people and a nation,

    whose caliphs are from us, and whose messenger is from us?

  5. مُلوكٌ تَرى الأَقوامَ يَتَّبِعونَنا

    إِلَينا اِنتَهَت حاجاتُها وَرَجيلُها

    Kings—you see the peoples following us;

    their needs and their men on foot come to us.

  6. إِذا ضاقَ عَن قَومٍ مَكانٌ رَأَيتَنا

    لَنا العَرضُ مِن أَرضِ السَماءِ وَطولُها

    When a place grows too narrow for a people, you see us:

    ours are the breadth of the earth beneath the sky and its length.

  7. نَهَزتَ بِدَلوٍ يَملَأُ الأَرضَ نِصفُها

    وَخَيرُ دِلاءِ المُستَقينَ سَجيلُها

    You have plunged a bucket whose half fills the earth,

    and the best of the water-drawers’ buckets is the capacious one,

  8. عَلى نَبَطٍ مِن أَهلِ حَورانَ أَصبَحَت

    مُوَشَّمَةَ الأَيدي لَئيماً فُلولُها

    against Nabataeans from the people of Hauran, who have become

    tattooed on their hands, their routed remnants base.

  9. وَإِنّي أَنا النَجمُ الَّذي عُذِّبَت بِهِ

    قُرى أُمَّةٍ بادَت وَبادَ نَخيلُها

    And I am the star by which were tormented

    the villages of a nation that perished, and its palms perished.

  10. وَكانَ الطِرِمّاحُ الأُحَيمَقُ إِذ عَوى

    كَبَكرِ ثَمودٍ حينَ حَلَّ فَصيلُها

    And al-Tirimmah, that little fool, when he howled, was

    like Thamud’s young camel when their calf came down.

  11. سَيَسمَعُ مَن يَعوي إِلَيَّ وَقَومُهُ

    عَوائِرَ مِنّي يَصدَعُ الصَخرَ قيلُها

    He who howls at me, and his people, will hear

    taunts from me whose utterance splits rock.

  12. إِذا قُتِلَ الطائِيُّ كانَت دِياتُهُ

    عَلى طَيِّئٍ يودى التُيوسَ قَتيلُها

    If the Tayyite is slain, his blood-money is owed

    by Tayy; its slain man is paid for in billy goats.