1. The mountain-passes and the sandy wastes confine you,
And between the sands and rocky tracts are the morning stars,

2. White like the flash of our meeting glances,
The hearts of the folk are eyes and they are pure.

3. Soft-skinned maidens, shy and languorous,
Clad in their mantles and silken robes.

4. When the wind tosses the fragrance of musk,
Ambergris and perfume into the air,

5. They appear like a summer's cloud,
That passes suddenly, charged with abundant rain.

6. But when they rode away, shoals of false men
Thronged about them, all with some want.

7. Then, truly, my skull was split from my bosom,
My heart almost flew away for sadness.

8. My heart distraught by the maidens imposes on me
A wish hard to fulfil for their love.

9. Till my reason returned and my patience was restored,
And the compact of my kinsmen was revealed to me.

10. My heart seemed as though it were in Salma's dwellings,
Safe, or a captive of blood held in durance.

11. Even so, before this, you were my beloved,
My nights were passed embraced by you, murmuring softly.

12. While the boon-companion, the sociable rogue, craved
Our visits, and the jealous one estranged us.

13. With the singing-girls we had obligations
And in the heart's retreat a love held in conscience.

14. You would show me gentle of conversation,
Pliant like the Oka-branches, soft-lined,

15. And the eye of a wild cow of Al-Jiwa', whose heart
A small calf wounds among the sand-dunes.

16. Had you wished me well, you would have known my father
To be kindly to the doer of good, grateful.

17. I would have kept faith with you; for my troth,
I thought you worthy of the best I could give.

18. And granted you favours that bear no shame,
As though your kinsman were a hail-stone's core.

19. There came to us, wearing his clay like armour,
A Hejazi, stiff-necked with pride.

20. A sleepless foe, unseen,
Though the keen-sighted were aware of his enmity,

21. Had you answered me, you would have wearied of me,
While you fail far short of the distance I can go.

22. Had you returned to me, you would have seen my folk
As the noblest tribe, in numbers many.

23. When Canopus follows the Pleiades,
And rain becomes scarce and the patient man is sought,

24. When the snakes lie in their hiding-places,
And the rabid dog is dumb, lacking even the power to bark,

25. Then you would have found the remnant of good faith in us,
Standing firm, who have made our dwelling in Ma'inn.