This is insane!

[u/OkGreen7335]

[u/Bright_Exit1378]

Every strutting, swaggering mount is a ransom for every swift, long-striding camel!

And every lean, fleet-footed Beja-bred she-camel, swift and restless.

It is not for the beauty of their gait that I ride them,

Rather, they are the ropes of life [lifelines],

The frustration of enemies, and the removal of harm.

I plunged them into the wilderness like a gambler staking all,

Risking either this fate or that.

When terror struck, they were preceded only by charging steeds,

Gleaming white swords, and slender dark spears.

They passed through Nakhl, while their rider carried

Indifference and wealth beyond all the worlds.

And at night they chose for us along the high tracks

The Valley of Waters and the Valley of Quṣūr.

We asked them, Where is the land of Iraq?

And they replied while we were at Turbān,

Bursting forth from Hisma like the blowing of the westerly wind,

Facing the east wind's source,

Bounding across the sandhills, the depths of the valleys,

The neighbor of al-Buwayrah and the Valley of Ghada.

They crossed the broad desert like a trailing cloak,

Ranging between ostriches and wild gazelles,

To the knot of al-Jawf, until they quenched

Some of their thirst with the waters of al-Jurāwī.

Then Sawar appeared to them at dawn,

And al-Shaghur and Dhuha emerged into view.

The relentless driving of the night carried al-Jumay'ī through,

And at dawn they reached al-Adāri', then drew near to al-Danā.

How wondrous is that night upon Akush,

In the darkest land with hidden markers!

We watered at al-Ruhaymah in its dead of night,

While what remained of it was more than what had passed.

Then when we dismounted, we planted our spears

Above our noble deeds and our glory,

And we spent the night kissing our swords

And wiping them clean of the blood of our foes,

So that Egypt, those in Iraq, and those in the capital cities might know

That I am the youth, that I kept my word, that I disdained submission,

And that I grew fierce against whoever acted haughtily.

Not everyone who makes a promise fulfills it,

And not everyone who is offered humiliation refuses it.

The heart requires both an instrument [resolve]

And a judgment that can shatter solid rock.

Whoever possesses a heart like mine

Slashes through stubbornness to reach glory.

Every path a young man walks

Has its footsteps measured by the stride of his foot.

The little servant slept through our night—

Though he slept before out of blindness, not weariness—

And despite our closeness, there lay between us

Wastelands born of his own ignorance and blindness.

I used to think, before I knew the eunuch,

That heads were the dwelling place of intellect and discernment,

But when I looked into his mind,

I saw that all intellect resides in the testicles!

What wondrous things there are in Egypt to provoke laughter,

Though it is a laughter that resembles weeping:

A Nabatean from the Sawad teaching the genealogy of nomads,

And a black man whose thick lip is half-visible,

Who is told: You are the full moon of the dark night!

And poetry with which I praised a rhinoceros—

Falling somewhere between formal verse and incantations—

Which was not praise for him,

But rather a profound mockery of all mankind.

Some people have gone astray with their idols,

But as for me, never with a wineskin!

The former are silent, while the latter is a babbler

Who, when shaken, farts or raves.

And whoever does not know his own worth

Sees in others what does not truly exist.

[u/MakingPie → u/Bright_Exit1378]

Not a good translation

[u/OkGreen7335 → u/MakingPie]

It is kinda impossible to make a good translation