إذا المرء لم يدنس من اللوم عرضُهُ فكلُّ رداءٍ يرتديه جميلُ
وإن هو لم يَحْمِلْ على النفس ضَيْمْها فليس إلى حسن الثناء سبيل
تُعَيِّرُنا أنّا قليلٌ عديدُنا فقلتُ لها إنّ الكرام قليل
وما قلّ من كانت بقاياه مِثْلَنا شبابٌ تَسَامَى للعُلا كهول
وما ضَرَّنا أنّا قليلٌ وجارُنا عزيزٌ وجارُ ألاكثرين ذليل
لنا جَبَلٌ يحتلّه من نُجيره منيعٌ يَرُدُّ الطرفَ وهْو كليل
رسا أصلُه تحت الثرى وسما به إلى النجم فرعٌ لا يُنال طويل
وإنّا لقومٌ ما نرى القتل سُبَّةً إذا مارأتْه عامرٌ وسَلُول
يُقَرِّبُ حبُّ الموت آجالَنا لنا وتكرهه آجالُهم فتطول
وما مات منّا سيّدٌ حَتْفَ أنْفِه ولا طُلَّ منّا حيث كان قتيل
تسيل على حدّ الظبات نفوسُنا وليست على غيرالظبات تسيل
صَفَوْنا فلم نكدر وأخلص سرَّنا إناثٌ أطابت حملَنا وفحول
عَلَوْنا إلى خير الظهور وحَطَّنا لوقت إلى خير البطون نُزُول
فنحن كماء المُزْنِ ما فى نِصابنا كهامٌ ولا فينا يُعَدُّ نخيل
ونُنكر إن شئنا على الناس قولّهم ولا ينكرون القول حين نقول
إذا سيّدٌ مِنّا خلا قام سيّدٌ قَؤُولُ لما قال الكرامُ فَعُول
وما أُخْمِدَتْ نارٌ لنا دون طارق ولا ذمّنا فى النازلين نَزِيلُ
وأيّامُنا مشهورةٌ فى عدوّنا لها غُرَرٌ معلومةٌ وحُجُولُ
وأسيافُنا فى كّل غربٍ وشرقٍ بها من قراع الدارعين فلول
معوَّدةً أن لا تُسَلَّ نِصالها فتُغْمَدَ حتّى يُستباحَ قبيل
سَلىِ إن جهلتِ الناس عناّ وعنهمُ وليس سواءً عالمٌ وجَهول
فإنّ بنى الديّان قطبٌ لقومهم تدور رحاهم حولهم وتجول
And if he has never constrained himself to endure despite, then there is no way to goodly praise.
She was reproaching us, that we were few in numbers, so I said to her "Indeed, noble men are few.
Not few are they whose remnants are like to us - youths who have climbed to the heights, and old men too.
It harms us not that we are few, seeing that our kinsman is mighty, whereas the kinsman of the most part of men is abased.
We have a mountain where those we protect come to dwell, impregnable, turning back the eye and it a-weary.
Its trunk is anchored beneath the soil, and a branch soars with it to the stars, unattainable, tall.
We indeed are a folk who deem not being killed a disgrace, though Amir and Salul may consider it.
The love of death brings our term near to us, but their term hates death, and is therefore prolonged.
Not one sayyid of ours ever died a natural death, nor was any slain of ours ever left where he lay unavenged.
Our souls flow out along the edge of the sword blades, and do not flow out along other than sword blades.
We have remained pure and unsullied, and females and stallions who bore us in goodly fame kept intact our stock.
We climbed on to the best of backs, and a descending brought us down in due time to the best of bellies.
We are as the water of the rain-shower, in our metal is no bluntness, neither is any miser numbered amongst us.
We disapprove if we will of what other men say, but they disavow never words spoken by us.
Whenever a sayyid of ours disappears, a sayyid arises, one eloquent to speak as noble men speak, and strong to act moreover.
No fire of ours was ever doused against a night-visitor, neither has any casual guest alighting found fault with us.
Our days are famous amongst our foes, they have well-marked blazes and white pasterns,
and our swords in all the west and east have been blunted from smiting against armoured warriors;
their blades are accustomed not to be drawn and then sheathed until the blood of a host is spilled.
If you are ignorant, ask the people concerning us and them, and he who knows and he who is ignorant are not equal."
Surely the Banu ´l-Daiyan are as a pole for their people, their mills turn and rotate around them.
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English translation taken and slightly modified from A.J. Arberry´s Arabic Poetry a Primer for Students
The poem is full of a vibrant machismo which extols the excellence of the Banu `l-Daiyan while hurling impertinent insults and invective against the opponent and enemy. It encompasses and preserves an idealized, aristocratic, masculine, warrior ethos. In the end, it is a response to an insult hurled by an unnamed and unknown woman. While the Banu ´l-Daiyan are as a pole for their people, their mills turn and rotate around them this poem turns and rotates around this unnamed woman´s insult.
Arabic poems usually name the women which appear in them, e.g.; the idealized beloved of the poet, but not so in this poem. Her insult you are few implies so much more: you are small, weak, pathetic, cowardly, easily conquered, etc., etc.. Of course the response to this one, little insult is the remainder of the poem filled with its bravado and hyperbole. In the process an idealized image and ethos of what it means to be a male member of the Banu `l-Daiyan emerges. Was she a member of the warring tribe and enemy coming out to meet them in battle? Was she a recent captive, the booty and spoils of war, or was she a member of the Banu `l-Daiyan, some one´s wife or concubine? Of course, not naming her is also a tactic of the poet. She is the antithesis of the Beloved, she is the Unbeloved, the Slanderess. Her insult serves as the occassion for this poem, and excepting that, she is best forgotten.
All of Arabic poetry of the Jahiliyya has been highly redacted, if not, outright created by the early Grammarians. The poem is highly stylized and we will likely never know if Samaw'al ibn 'Adiya wrote this poem, it was written to celebrate him, or has nothing to do with him at all and it was only attributed to him out of tradition. Arberry and other sources mention that Amir and Salul are rival tribes, and Samaw'al ibn 'Adiya may not have even been a member of the Banu `l-Daiyan. The reference "We have a mountain..." may or may not be a reference to Samaw´al´s castle near Taima.
