فان يبل الشباب فكل شيء

سمعت به سوى الرحمن بال

For if youth wears away, then everything

I have heard of, save the All-Merciful, wears away.

أَلا ان الشباب ثياب لبس

وَما الاموال الا كالظلال

Indeed, youth is clothing one wears,

and riches are only like shadows.

وَما ادري وان جامعت قوماً

أَفيهم بغيتي أَم في الزيال

And I do not know, even when I join a people,

whether what I seek lies among them or in parting.

وَحاملة وَما تدري أَفيه

يَكون نجاحها أَم في الحيالِ

And a pregnant woman does not know whether in pregnancy

lies her good fortune, or in barrenness.

لعلك يا ابن فرخ اللؤم تَرجو

زَوال الراسيات من الجبال

Perhaps, O son of the brood of baseness, you hope

for the firmly rooted mountains to vanish.

فانك لن تنال المجد حتىّ

حتىّ تردَّ الماضيات من اللياليَ

For you will never attain glory until,

until you bring back the nights that have passed.

أَبي مضر الَّذي حدثت عنه

وَكل رَبيعة الامرين خالي

My father is Mudar, of whom you have been told,

and all Rabi‘ah al-Amrayn are my maternal kin.

واني حين أَنسب من تميم

لَفي الشم الشماريخ الطوالِ

And when I trace my lineage in Tamim,

I am surely among the lofty, towering peaks.

وآبائي بنو عُدس بن زيد

وَخالي البشر بشر بني هلال

And my forefathers are the sons of ‘Udas ibn Zayd,

and my maternal uncle is al-Bishr, Bishr of Banu Hilal.

كَساني غرَّتي عمرو بن عمرو

وردّاني زرارة بالفعالِ

‘Amr ibn ‘Amr clothed me in my radiant honor,

and Zurarah wrapped me in noble deeds.

كَفاني حاجب كسرى وقوماً

هم البيض الكرام ذوو السبالِ

Hajib dealt on my behalf with Kisra and a people

who are fair-faced, noble, and wear mustaches.

وَسار عطارد حتىّ أَتاهم

فأَعطوه المنى غير اِنتحال

‘Utarid journeyed until he reached them,

and they granted him his wishes, without false pretence.

وَذو القرنين آخاه لقيط

وكان صفيه دون الرجالِ

And Laqit took Dhu al-Qarnayn as his brother,

and was his chosen friend above other men.

هما حبيبا بديباج كَريم

وَياقوت يفصل بالمَحالِ

Both were gifted fine brocade

and rubies interspersed with necklace spacers.

وَكانَ الحازم القعقاع منا

لزاز الخصم والأَمر الفصالِ

And the resolute al-Qa‘qa‘ was one of us,

one who grapples with foes and decisive affairs.

شَريح فارس النعمال جدي

وَنازلها اذا دعيت نزالِ

Shurayh, rider of al-Nu‘mal, is my grandfather,

and he dismounts from her when 'Dismount!' is called.

وَقاتل خاله بأَبيه منا

سماعة لم يبع حسباً بمالٍ

And among us is the slayer of his maternal uncle, avenging his father—

Sama‘ah, who did not sell ancestral honor for money.

وندمان ابن جفنة كان خالي

ففارقه وليس له بقالِ

And my maternal uncle was the boon companion of Ibn Jafnah,

then parted from him without hating him.

وَيَومٍ مظلم لبني تميم

جلونا شمسه والكعب عالِ

And on a dark day for Banu Tamim,

we unveiled its sun, our stature high.

بحث المجد قد علمت معد

وَنَغلي المجد ان المجد غالِ

Ma‘add well knows the pursuit of glory,

and we set a high price on glory, for glory is precious.

دَعَتنا الحنظلية إِذ لحقنا

وقد حملت على حمل ثقالِ

The Hanzali woman called to us as we caught up,

already carried upon a heavy load.

فأدركها ولم يعدل شريح

وأَعوج عند مختلف العوالي

So Shurayh reached her without turning aside,

and A‘waj, where the spearheads crossed.

فغرنا ان غيرتنا كذاكم

اذا برز النساء من الحجال

So we guarded our honor; such indeed is our jealous zeal

when women come forth from their curtained chambers.

متى نأسر وَنؤسر في اناس

وَيوجع كلما عقد الحبال

Whenever we take captives and are taken captive among a people,

and pain comes whenever the ropes are tied,

فَنَحن الذائدون إِذا بُدئنا

ولا يرضون منا بالبدال

then we are the defenders when we are attacked first,

and they will accept no substitutes from us.

فدع قَومي وَقومك لا تسئنا

وأَقبل للتمجد وَالفعال

So leave my people and yours alone; do not malign us,

and turn to seeking glory and noble deeds.

كلانا شاعر من حي صدق

ولكن الرحا فوق الثقال

Each of us is a poet from an honorable tribe,

but the millstone is above the [mill-mat].

وَحكم دغفلا نرحل اليه

ولا ترح المطيّ من الكلال

Appoint Daghfal judge; we shall journey to him,

and give the mounts no respite from fatigue.

تَعال إِلى النبوة من قريش

واكرم من علا سقب الرحالِ

Come to the prophethood among Quraysh,

and the noblest man ever to mount a saddle.

وَإِلّا فاعتمد سوقاً كِراماً

يفضل فوق سجلكم سجالي

Otherwise, seek out noble commoners:

my buckets will surpass your bucket.

تَعال إِلى بني الكوّاء يقضوا

بعلمهم بأنساب الرجال

Come to Banu al-Kawwa’, to let them judge

through their knowledge of men's lineages.

تَعالَ الى ابن مذعور شهاب

يخبر بالسوافل والعَوالي

Come to Shihab ibn Madh‘ur,

who tells of the lowly and the exalted.

وَعند الكيس النمري علم

ولَو أَمسى بمنخرق الشمال

And the discerning Namiri has knowledge,

even if he spends the evening where the north wind tears through.

كأَنَّ قدور قومي كل يومٍ

قيان الترك ملبسة الجلالِ

My people's cauldrons, every day, are like

Turkish singing girls clad in mantles.

أَمام الحيّ تحملها اثافٍ

ململمة كاثباج الرمال

Before the encampment, hearthstones support them,

rounded like the swelling ridges of sand.

كأَنَّ الموقدين لها جمال

طلاها الزفت والقطران طالي

Those who stoke their fires look like camels

coated by a dauber with pitch and tar.

بأَيديهم مغارف من حديد

أَبهها مقيرة الدوالي

In their hands are iron ladles,

most like pitch-coated well-sweeps.

أَتوعدني وانت بذات عرق

وقد غصت تهامة بالرجال

Do you threaten me while you are at Dhat ‘Irq,

when Tihamah is already choked with men,

وَقَد سال الفجاج فجاج نجد

بجرد الخليل والاسل النهال

and the passes—the passes of Najd—have streamed

with sleek [horses] and thirsting spears?