Ode XIII: As soon as I saw before

As soon as I saw before me the sons of Huyayy, I recognized in them [the objects of] my hatred and my vengeance.

I charged them with Wajrah, what time they shouted to one another to shoot from close at hand at her throat and mine.

When she had gone clean through them, she turned and dashed against them again, as though her foal and my first-born son were in the midst of them,

At Dhat ar-Rimth, what time they lowered the lances [to receive us], whose points shone like glowing coals.

Then I blenched not, and showed no faint heart, but made straight for Abu Sakhr son of 'Amr.

I burst the joints of his harness with a thrust that went straight through him, in spite of haste and nervousness.

I left the spear-point gleaming in the middle of his back, looking as though its blade were the beak of a vulture ;

And if he recovers, it will not be because I used charms over him ; and if he dies, why, that was my purpose.