1. A well-wisher brought love between us
And drew me close on the day of parting to my death

2. So part of my heart flew away with her
And her tent rope joined my rope

3. So I cannot forget our stopping places
Hers and mine, by the palm trees

4. When we stopped I knew her feeling
Was like mine, step matching step

5. She hurried off like a wild deer
To a stopping place among the sand hills by the palms

6. And said to her girl friends with fawn-like eyes
"It's too long to yearn and stand waiting for him"

7. And she said to them "Go back a little so we can
Reproach him or ask him to return to his friends"

8. They said "It's late and our people are near
Are you tired of riding your camel?"

9. She said "Do as you wish" and they said "Get down
The ground is better than standing with burdens"

10. And they gathered around her like fawns
Each ransomable by love and kinsmen

11. Starry-eyed gazelles clustered around
A full moon with no lack or decline

12. I greeted her and drew confidence that no
Enemy would see me or spy witness against me

13. She unveiled her face saying "Here there is
None but an intimate without kinsmen"

14. I said "They have no claim over me
But my secret is too much for the likes of me"

15. When our talk fell short of them
And they were like doctors at the sick man's need

16. They knew her love so said "Permit us
To enjoy for an hour the sweet night and plain"

17. She said "Do not be long" They said "Talk on
We came to you flowing like the sands"

18. They left realizing that they had done
What they did for her sake and mine

19. And she stayed perfuming me with musk in the gloom
A singing camel driver keeping silent

20. Turning the eyes of a gazelle browsing the pasture
Yearning for the freedom of an untamed foal

21. Baring a meadow the youth and early rains
Had uncovered from high ground and obstruction

22. I dream of her at every evening and dawn
And increase my prayers when my feet grow numb