1. Why did that lightning flash, turning away,
Speaking of the winding slopes and barren hills?

2. I cast it away with my tears and sorrows,
Tales of one who settled in Acacia Grove or Ghadha.

3. It continues to unfold what was folded of my anguish
With a gleam, when it illuminated the hills,

4. It provoked the embers of my love and reminded me of past passions,
And it vanished - would that its gleam for me had not vanished!

5. On the slope of Mount Tubayq a gazelle,
Its gaze more piercing than a judge’s glance,

6. When it appeared to us in the twisted valleys,
It sent an apparition inciting souls to murder.

7. So I stretched out before it a faded cheek,
And tears flowed down it, poured out.

8. God bless that dear apparition! What hand but mine
Could repay its sweetest thanks by my standing up?

9. My day had been dark before it in my eyes,
And it returned my night bright white.

10. Who will send me the phantom of imagination when
It has departed, veiling the night of discontent in joyful peace?

11. That I may restore the pomegranates of the breasts now broken
From them, and the apples of the cheeks now bruised.