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I am the champion-slayer, the warrior without peer; My foes I slay, destroying the hosts, when I appear.
Tow’rds El Akil my journey I take; to visit him, The wastes in praise and safety I traverse, without fear,
And all the desert spaces devour, whilst to my rede, Or if in sport or earnest,[1] still Aamir giveth ear.
Who letteth us or hind’reth our way, I spring on him, As springeth lynx or panther upon the frighted deer;
With ruin I o’erwhelm him and abjectness and woe And cause him quaff the goblet of death and distance drear.
Well-ground my polished sword is and thin and keen of edge And trenchant, eke, for smiting and long my steel-barbed spear.
So fell and fierce my stroke is, if on a mountain high It lit, though all of granite, right through its midst ’twould shear.
Nor troops have I nor henchmen nor one to lend me aid Save God, to whom, my Maker, my voice in praise I rear.
’Tis He who pardoneth errors alike to slave and free; On Him is my reliance in good and evil cheer.
Then they fell to journeying night and day, and as they went, behold, they sighted a camp of the camps of the Arabs. So El Abbas enquired thereof and was told that it was the camp of the Benou Zuhreh. Now there were around them sheep and cattle, such as filled the earth, and they were enemies to El Akil, the cousin of El Abbas, upon whom they still made raids and took his cattle; wherefore he used to pay them tribute every year, for that he availed not to cope with them. When El Abbas came
- ↑ i.e. whether on a matter of sport, such as the chase, or a grave matter, such as war, etc.
