1. أَلَم تَرَ أَنّا وَجَدنا الضَبيحَ

    بِثَأرِ أَخيهِ عَلَينا بَخيلا

    Have you not seen that we found al-Ḍabīḥ

    unyielding toward us over vengeance for his brother?

  2. كَأَنّا نُباري بِهِ حَيَّةً

    عَلى جَبَلٍ لا يُريدُ النُزولا

    As though, in confronting him, we contended with a serpent

    on a mountain, unwilling to descend—

  3. أَصَمَّ أَبى ما يُجيبُ الرُقى

    وَلَم تَرَهُ الشَمسُ إِلّا قَليلا

    deaf and defiant, answering no incantations,

    and seen by the sun only rarely.

  4. أَبِيُّ المَقادَةِ صَعبُ النَجِيِّ

    إِذا نَحنُ قُلنا أَبى أَن يَقولا

    Resistant to being led, difficult to confer with,

    when we spoke, he refused to speak,

  5. سِوى أَنَّهُ قالَ إِنَّ القِلاصَ

    قِلاصَ المَعاقِلِ تُرضي الذَليلا

    except that he said: “Indeed, the young she-camels—

    the young she-camels paid as blood-money—satisfy the abject.”

  6. وَلَو قَبِلوا العَقلَ مِن ثَأرِهِم

    أَنَخنا لَهُم شَدقَمِيّاً ذَلولا

    And had they accepted blood-money in place of their vengeance,

    we would have made a docile Shadqamī camel kneel for them,

  7. يُطَبِّقُ بِالأَربَعِ المُعكَياتِ

    لَم يَدَعِ الحُكمُ فيها فَصيلا

    setting all four bound legs down together;

    the judgment left no weanling calf among them.