1. جاءوا معاً فيلقاً جأواء مشعلة

    للموتِ تُمري وللأبطال تقتسرُ

    They came together, a dark-armored host spread wide,

    urging men toward death and seizing champions by force.

  2. صريف أنيابها صوت الحديد إذا

    فضَّ الحديث بها أبناؤها الوفرُ

    The grinding of its fangs is the clang of iron when

    its many sons break off their talk within it.

  3. ودرها الموت يقري في مخالبها

    للواردين يوفي شربه القدرُ

    Its milk is death, offering hospitality within its talons

    to those who come to water; Fate gives its draught in full.

  4. من اقتراها قرت كفاه حتفهما

    أو اجتلاها بدا منها له عِبَرُ

    Whoever seeks its hospitality, his two hands host their own doom;

    or whoever beholds it sees lessons emerge from it.

  5. في جوها البيض والماذي مختلط

    والجرد والمرد والخطية السمرُ

    In its midst are mingled bright swords and fine mail,

    and sleek steeds, beardless youths, and dusky spears of al-Khatt.

  6. حتى إذا واجهتهم وهي كالحة

    شوهاءُ منها حمامُ الموتِ ينتظرُ

    Until, when you faced them as it scowled,

    hideous, with death's doom expected from it,

  7. جاءَت بكل كمي معلمٍ ذكرٍ

    في كفه ذكرٌ يسعى به ذكرُ

    it came with every armored champion, marked and valiant,

    a keen blade in his palm, a stallion bearing him on.

  8. مستوردين الوغى للموتِ ردهم

    يوم الحفاظ على ذوادِهم عسرُ

    Entering the fray to drink of death—to turn them back

    on honor's day is hard for those who would repel them.

  9. لهم سرابيل من ماء الحديد ومن

    نضح الدماء سرابيل لهم أخرُ

    They have tunics of gleaming iron, and of

    spattered blood they have other tunics,

  10. مظاهرات عليهم يوم بأسهم

    لونان جُونٌ وأخرى فوقها حُمرُ

    layered upon them on the day of their fierce fighting:

    two colors: dark tunics, and red ones over them.

  11. في يوم حتف يهال الناظرون له

    ما إن تبين له شمس ولا قمرُ

    On a day of death that terrifies onlookers,

    neither sun nor moon is visible in it.

  12. فالبيض يهتفن والأبصار طامحة

    مما ترى وخدود القوم تنعفرُ

    The bright swords cry out, and eyes stare upward

    at what they see, while the men's cheeks are rubbed in dust.

  13. تكسوهمُ مرهفاتٌ غير محدثةٍ

    يشفي اختلاسُ ضباها من به صعرُ

    Keen-edged blades clothe them, not newly fashioned,

    their edges' swift strokes curing whoever holds his neck haughtily.

  14. هِندية كاشتعال البرق يعصمهم

    بها مغاوير عن أحسابهم غِيرُ

    Indian blades, like lightning's flare; the men are shielded

    with these by daring raiders, zealous for their ancestral honor.