1. The separation has made you forget them all,
And the distance after parting has squared it.

2. Your heart has become distressed at their separation,
Yearning, until your face almost cracks from it.

3. Or whenever the beloved called an intention,
Their tear ducts were generous and their tears overflowed.

4. So it was as if the oath of a sworn oath-taker,
The tears precede him and knock him down.

5. And if I say it healed his blindness,
Love returned to the heart to check it.

6. So I threw a glance at them,
And it came close, so I could water the hair of my breast.

7. And the desert spread its garments,
As if to dress it and undress it.

8. And they are above the eyes in the morning,
Date palms that fear the cropper because of their bounty.

9. A north wind blew against it
And the branches bend it down and raise it up.

10. Above the ponds is a twittering as if of starlings
The leaning of the branches makes its humility sway.

11. Short rugged undershrubs cover
Sand dunes which their twisting makes them limp.

12. And when they smile, their cheeks uncover
Sweet cool water, as if the wind filtered it.

13. In it is moisture, and in it is the cure for him
Of the sediment of heated passions that are filtered in it.

14. And honey in the evening, and veils
That take on its colors have turned them orange.

15. So they exuded cotton and ambergris,
And the perfume of fine musk elevates it.

16. So, lands where they live were watered
By a rain whose musk scent carries it.

17. Kindness which the wind blows on its sides,
A rain whose abundance makes it overflow.

18. And it insisted on covering the dunes, and its downpour
With an echo of moaning stripped them bare.

19. Dry of udders its teats,
Billowing with gum that its workmanship perfected.

20. And it is as if above its back there is bristling
That has fulfilled over the two ears its place.

21. For it that vessel is mightiest,
And the wefts have germinated on it with tapping.

22. Spacious of ankles as if it has a little bridge
Where the shanks met in its purebred stoutness.

23. Of its secret the ample side is a sixth
Or a blessed one whose length is squared.

24. The brittle palm branch, its fruits
Rattle to accompany the singing and tremolo.

25. So it is as if after weariness, when
The camel saddle had dried and its flap loosened.

26. Two saddlebags, decorated, deviated
From the riders, its skin coat links knitted together.

27. Of beasts a lonely hyena, sly
Who has misshapen cheeks and twisted hands.

28. A fox, gray of mane, snub-nosed,
Resembling the wild ass, oldest of its herd.

29. It spent the day coming and going restlessly
Eyes roaming misled by its squareness.

30. Until when the time was up, it saw
Lightning that turned its brightness toward it.

31. So it made its way to a lotus tree bent with fruit
That had been twisting and bending it.

32. In a dense thicket whose sides
Are a copse in which it can take refuge and be protected.

33. Until when it laid down its elbows
For its night’s rest, and its lying down obeyed it.

34. The north wind destroyed its structure over it
So the shelter over its eyes was stripped bare.

35. It had to use the sediment of the night for kohl,
And the water mounted it and pushed it away.

36. It provided it and spent the night in its disaster
Slippery from the darkness, its gathering weak.

37. And a thump of snakes startles and terrifies it,
A hiss that it can hear.

38. And it continues to ride on its snout vigilantly
For a bit in its night and pursues it.

39. And it awoke from the bad omen and its luck
Dissipated the darkness of the night it could peel back.

40. So it went in the morning, concealing
A beast at the back of the absent one it could hear.

41. So it was as if a lark with wings
Was chirping where the riders were raising their voices.

42. And there was for it in the wilderness a piece of meat
Like the chief’s, whose head was hairless.

43. Wearing a bow and quiver,
And arrows in a container that rattles as it moves.

44. With it were hunting hounds, for it
Those it sometimes resisted and pursued.

45. Their company, so when they went forth together
And the stouthearted one bred for war raced ahead,

46. Beneath glory and above its halt,
Trying to avoid fate, though it was intent to meet it.

47. So the swooping ones, desiring it, caught up with it
The angry, secondary feathers subduing it.

48. It inclines its forelegs away from a herd,
A truth-teller whose quick spear-thrust hurried it.

49. So you see it has greedy hopes and mounts it
And man is reddest where his hopes lie.

50. So it had talons among which were
Spurts of blood from the belly that gushed from it.

51. And the burdened one saw that its luck had
Departed ominously and it met a loss that lopped it off.

52. And it was widowed with blood before it, as
The overtaking fulfilled its destiny and time of death.

53. And it went on a chest as if on it
Was a jinn wandering on it and scattering it apart.

54. Like a bright star, humbled,
Lowering a barrier like the sparks of fire brandished from it.

55. And it tossed off its shoulders, and with them
Were flakes of pebbles flying and shooting from it.

56. Facing the direction of north for it
Was hobbling on its two forelegs, knocking it.

57. And it was as if its shanks strained
That its four not touch the ground.

58. Woe to its mother, heavily laden with its packsaddle
And blameworthy, when its panic intensified!

59. And cursed is one who steps aside with smooth rocks
On an ignoramus, the twists of which wound it!

60. A plateau whose waters wild cats roam around
Whose dens are its resting places.

61. They scattered in the areas of its watering hole
A mix of lark, which gathered.

62. And the night had let down its locks
And morning is veiled, though it has two paths.

63. So I uncovered one wearing strips of cloth
Dripping on its purity their loose ends.

64. Then it bent its two knees and leaned
Supporting itself by the rocks to deceive it.

65. And it was as if its jugs had clashed
Against the boulder - this water he gulps and drinks.

66. So it inclined toward the jowl, so the thick hair
Inclined, and it almost cut it off.

67. And I stayed its swaying, as it imagined
Buckets by which to pour it and forbid it.

68. And it had in the wilderness some confusion
Distressed, angry, destructive in its desolation.

69. Covering its claws, repeated
Is that which flutters over it, its flapping.

70. And some that are recalcitrant, stubborn, blessed
Perplexed, howling wherever its opening is.