1. وَتَخالُهُ يَومَ الرِهانِ غَمامَةٌ

    خَطَرَت بِريحٍ في غَمائِمَ فُرَّغِ

    And on race day you would take him for a cloud,

    swept along by a wind among rainless clouds.

  2. وَمُهَنَّداً مِن عَهدِ عادٍ صارِماً

    إِن يَطَّلِب إِتلافَ نَفسٍ يَبلُغِ

    And a keen Indian-steel sword from the age of ʿĀd—

    if it seeks to take a life, it succeeds.

  3. يَلقى الضَريبَةَ حَدُّهُ فَيَقُدُّها

    قَدَّ الأَديمِ وَمَتنُهُ لَم يُصبَغِ

    Its edge meets the target and slices through it,

    as leather is slit, while its spine remains unstained.

  4. هَذا إِلى ضافي الذُيولِ مُضاعَفٍ

    كَالسَلخِ مِن قُمُصِ الحَديدِ مُسبَغِ

    All this, with double-linked mail whose skirts hang long,

    like a shed skin, an ample shirt of iron;

  5. وَقَضيبِ نَبعٍ كَالشُجاعِ مُعَطَّفٍ

    لِرَسائِلِ المَوتِ الزُعافِ مُبَلِّغِ

    and a curved stave of nabʿ wood, like a serpent,

    bearing the messages of swift death,

  6. يَحدو إِلَيَّ قُذاذَةً مَقذوذَةً

    قَذَّ الحَواجِبِ بِالدِماءِ مُوَلَّغِ

    sending toward me an arrow with clipped feathers,

    clipped like eyebrows—the bow steeped in blood.