1. We came to Salma's house, so it cheered up the place,
Yet my eyes don't enjoy pleasures anymore,

2. And her separation passed by like a night visitor,
So the raven confirmed that suspicion.

3. It became morning in Baghdan in a house,
With lofty ceilings reaching the sky.

4. An army and guards are next to it,
With thick necks like lions hunting prey,

5. In their hands are polished swords,
Smooth like the slipping twilight.

6. And beyond it is an evacuated town
Where owls respond to the echoes.

7. And a watering place with stagnant water,
Not fit to take cover next to after being blocked.

8. Wolves howl next to it at night,
And morning finds them in the ravines.

9. How many perils are near your house,
And how many cunning lions in the den!

10. And how many Abyssinians not responding when called,
Dark-skinned with bodily strength like a young, virile man!

11. Deaf mutes, with long weapons,
Baring their teeth, with wide nostrils.

12. He has, when the air is still, a puffing breath
Flying on both his sides like burning coals.

13. And two red eyes, their sockets
Peering out from a forehead like a meadow.

14. When he yawns, he reveals to him
Jagged teeth, as the handmill's creaking sounds

15. When its parts come together and fold over each other.
If he were to bite polished swords, his fangs would stick in the steel.

16. It's as if his claws are detached and scattered,
Single ones and pairs.

17. And the moaning of my crescent darling Qumriyya has hurt me,
At dusk, missing the morn.

18. She's a palm frond who began lamenting at dawn
Over a loved one gone in the thickets.

19. She sang a special melody for him
That provokes dormant passion.

20. She's adorned as if dressed up
With the dress of a mourner when she calls the deceased.

21. I've never seen a mourner cry like her.
She weeps but her tears can't be seen.

22. She led a baby camel astray, wandering with him
While the ropes of loss clung to him.

23. When despair of him was evident, she cried over him,
Though what will crying bring back?

24. A fierce, relentless eagle had hunted him,
With fluttering wings, swiftly seeking prey.

25. With claws of iron, feathers bare,
A harmful breed, bluish in color.

26. You'd see predators and birds frightened of him
When he shows aggression.

27. He spent the night sweetly on an observation post
On a towering, steep cliff.

28. When dawn broke for him
And dew rolled off his shoulders,

29. He scratched dry blood on his beak
From the meat of the wildcats.

30. Then he ascended into the air and turned around,
Flying rapidly when he swooped down.

31. He saw a flock of wildcats approaching
A watering place the floods didn't erase.

32. They had come early to drink
From leftover rainwater in the lowlands.

33. They took turns going first and didn't watch out
For what was behind or what was delayed.

34. They were reminded of a sweeping flood
Encircling its banks with thickets.

35. With it was a group of wildcats coming
And another leaving after being sated.

36. They filled a waterskin that wasn't tied up
With strings though its straps were attached.

37. So he snatched away one of the plump ones
And tore its snout and tendons.

38. He flew away and left its pieces behind
For the east and west winds to scatter.

39. You'd hear the flutter of his wings when
He swooped down from the sky like sudden lightning.

40. So they fled, exerting great effort to escape,
Groups plunged into the depths of the burrows.

41. He trapped them and quenched his thirst with them,
Slaughtering them like cascading water.

42. They spent the night mewing,
Red-groined, yellow-sided.

43. That's how he was aggressive in the morning:
With a jerboa, like an owner gratified with hospitality.

44. It had long forelegs, hunched back,
With curved incisors, bare upper teeth.

45. It has a broad temple and firm pillars
That don't complain of bending.

46. And a dangling ear, burrowed,
With a wide cheek and hollow interior.

47. And extended whiskers leading to a wide nose,
A capacious crotch, and long steps.

48. It has nineteen burrows near each other
After its dwelling widened through burrowing.

49. And seven dens, seven nests,
Five reservoirs, five watering places.

50. Nine thickets, seven orchards,
A herd's drinking place, and a resting place.

51. Seven are near, seven are far from it,
No defect in it can be seen.

52. Wide in its eight, solid in its eight,
Tight hoof, tight torso.

53. And it has five birds: two ravens
Above the wildcats belonging to it.

54. A griffin eagle and its chick appeared.
When it runs, it's as if its shoulder

55. Has a wing flipping it in the air.
We picked for it from the best of finds

56. Five slaves - bodies like piled mounds.
One accompanies it continuously,

57. We water it from milk whenever it desires,
And we prefer to provide it provisions, not family,

58. And he follows it during every journey.
So it lived comfortably until it wanted

59. For us to take it in closer.
We drove it insistently into the thickets -

60. Large bellied, flawless constitution.
They kick up the dust with whips

61. And ignite the shrubs with canes.
They fled like lightning in their escape,

62. Groups breaking through the impenetrable mountains.
The slave kept after it

63. Appearing and disappearing.
It felled five - some crushed,

64. Others with bleeding kidneys.
Two had their forearms shattered

65. And a third was covered in blood.
We were happy with the game for our families

66. After darkness had blanketed the land.
We stayed dividing its parts -

67. Each neighbor eats what he is content with.
And we walked with it like erect spear shafts,

68. Not bending from any weight.
The women spent the night feeding on it

69. And eating the roasted game.
They had tied it up and cast spells on it,

70. Blowing incantations into amulets.