Classic Poem

As soon as I saw before me the sons of Huyayy, I recognized in them
my hatred and my vengeance.
I charged them with Wajrah, what time they shouted one to an-
other 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.