1. You deserted Ummama with a long desertion
And separation burdened you with heavy burdens

2. And you were burdened with her separation
With little attainment and brief imaginary intimacy

3. And the look of one who has intense yearning
When the riders crossed over a mile

4. She came to us asking what we scattered
So we told her that we were determined to depart

5. And I told her that you must have known
That when the caravan turned away from us we were heedless

6. So she confronted me hastily
With tears flowing down her cheeks

7. And most of what she said as she turned away
Was just murmuring and saying farewell

8. And her excuse was that every person
Prepares for himself each day some worries

9. As if the resolve had not become barren
And the people of the valley did not come

10. So I readied for travel a she-camel
Grayish white, lively, with split lips

11. Penetrating through people crammed together
When the anklets were put on at nightfall

12. She has a monkey constantly glancing around
Fickleness slips away from him

13. She roams about on the edges of a fertile year
And no servant takes her to pasture

14. She holds her neck coyly erect
When I turn the noseband towards her

15. With an eye like the pouring wine-skin
When it is passed around to mix the wine

16. And a howdah whose two sides enclose her rider
Pouring the mane hair that hangs down

17. And a chest smooth as a roller
As if it had been planed

18. She passed by thorn-trees at dawn
And brushed against the side of a lofty sand-dune

19. Stepping with all her heavy forelegs
Like the strong treading of the weak

20. When she comes towards you, you would say she is terrified
Chasing after a roe-deer with split lips

21. And if she turns away you would say she is fully loaded
The wind obeyed her command absolutely

22. And if she turns sideways the beholder sees in her
What he is not burdened to describe

23. A forearm like a flexible drinking bowl
Branding and proceeding with clumsy steps

24. And crooked horns butting beneath the howdah
Swaying the saddle-blankets threadbare

25. She outdistances at nightfall the horses on the road
As if when she raised her forearms

26. And pulled the noseband then found the way
They were the arms of a swimmer who fell into deep water

27. Whom death overtook except for a little
And I informed my people but did not find them

28. Camped at Dhi Shawais
Either I will die and not reach them

29. So convey to the arrows’ feathers a messenger
That your people were given the choice of two qualities

30. Both of which they made impartial referees
The shame of life and war on a friend

31. And I saw each as food and home
If there was no alternative but one of them

32. Then march resolutely towards death
And do not sit while blamed

33. Misfortunes should suffice the man as madness
And fill the wars when they blaze up

34. With long spears and valiant horses
And refashioned coats of mail like

35. Those of David, jingling for the warriors
For you and the gift of pools

36. When the war pulls heavily, very heavily
Like the garment of Ibn Bayd that protected them

37. And obstructed the way for travelers
Stabbing the brave and striking the steeds

38. And the braying of the wild asses: dubla dubila