1. With night descending, Layla came by in the dark
With ample blankets to cosily ensconce

2. She kept me sleepless with dreamt passion and desire
Disheveled and burning, beseeching and dire

3. The stars lit the way for those lesser lights trailing
Flitting shadows wavering, failing

4. Suhayl drank deep the wellspring, resting
As a lion drinks deep of the law, questing

5. A mirage town looming with spear-tips heavy
From the heat-haze swarming unsteady

6. When the banners are lifted their shadows stretch long
Two by two, wearily walking along

7. In the morning chill, the mist slowly rising
The camels' necks taut as they came striding

8. You'd see clash and contest, feinting, contending
As their forelegs struck with dust clouds ascending

9. Their flanks heaving like waves on a turbulent sea
From the clash of their weapons so bright to see

10. Their swords casting rays like the moon when it's full
As their deadly blows rained swift and cruel

11. I shrouded them with care and with sadness profound
Seeking shelter beneath these shadows around

12. As though lifting a keen-bladed sword for a blow
With a steed giving rein that wildly would flow

13. Head flung down, eyes weeping, the tears freely flowing
Like a murmuring stream or sandstorm gust blowing

14. Dappled with blood from the wounds gaping wide
With she-camels milking grief's swellings inside

15. As though beneath me an urgent race was transpiring
Full of zeal, a choice colt with vigor untiring

16. Driving on without stop o'er the open terrain
Through time without end the horizons sustained

17. As though veiled in shawls that curtain their sight
From dawn until dusk he raced without respite

18. Feeling the ground shake and tremble with fright
With a roar that would overwhelm the senses outright

19. He spent the night startled, afraid, and awaking
Till day peeled the shadows away in its breaking

20. At dawn the cave's guest rose famished and hounded
He seeks prey before thinking to rest on the ground

21. When he spied lumbering game, a feast there for taking
With a pack of wild dogs and lions partaking

22. They chased him until he fell tumbling down
Plunging on, the cackling hyenas abound

23. Hot in pursuit of an ostrich fleeing restless
And longing to set on that long graceful neck

24. Until pressed beyond limit, beset by the chase
He turned and attacked them, their lives to efface

25. Raining blows on their necks, their sides, without cease
In a frenzy, his talons their living flesh seize

26. Leaving carcasses shredded, no longer defiant
And seeing no savior appear to rely on

27. To save his own life, as they closed in for the kill
He roared his last roar, and succumbed to their will

28. The sixth, seventh, eighth did not finish their feast
Nor the ninth, two more, then the gluttons increased

29. Till his kin lay dead from his frenzied attack
And when the cacophony reached its zenith

30. As his guttural death-cries rose louder again
Where he fell, thrashing deadly but fighting in vain

31. When he saw his love soaking the death-beds in red
Though helpless to fight, refusing to wed

32. He gave up, retreated, the horizon in sight
Alone, like a lost ostrich wandering at night