1. O kindler of fire with Indian wood and coal
You have stirred up sorrow in me, O kindler of fire

2. Between Rusâfa and the square I watch for her
A white perfumed Ghanean girl has captivated me

3. The breeze wafted her scent to me, blowing the fragrance
It brought my bones to life and stirred my memories

4. O Fuza, you who intoxicated me with your dance
The skilled cameleer travels and journeys

5. You went away and so did we, but when you returned
We returned, and you and us are bound to travel

6. I do not see two people with people between them
Like me and you in hardship and harm

7. You complain of separation and he complains of it, though they
Have never met or parted but by fate’s decree

8. No pleasure is seen in the union of two enamoured souls
Unless they incline toward shameful disgrace

9. When I deliberately avoid you, I pass by your door
Lest my coming and going be for you

10. I tell the people that I have forgotten you
Yet God knows what is hidden in my breast

11. My eyes find no sleep remembering you
So I do not sleep when my companions sleep

12. When all the sleepers lie down I sit alone
And talk with no one but the watcher of the house

13. For each eyelid tears flow down my cheek
An endless stream wetting my breast

14. I weep continually, my tears never end
Like a sea spring between my lashes

15. Would that the refined Abdallah were my intimate
And my companions were those in his company

16. Among them Humaid, Dawud and his friend
Al-Akhnessi, Bishr and Ibn Sayyar

17. A people who dug trenches for me in their hearts
And kept them for my secrets

18. Let him who has not seen a love-madman see me
My passion’s heat is a disgrace

19. My shirt slips from me out of longing for my body
And if I drew tight my robe’s clasps

20. My wonder never ceases at the ignorance of a jealous woman
Who was of my tribe and supporters

21. She named her daughter Fuza to vex me
I would excuse her if that braceleted one slapped me

22. And the women of her family still
Strip my covers from every side

23. I was patient with a people who wronged me
And spoke not but after excuse

24. Your uncle and I are like the stallion the vicious
Lion’s claws prevent from his food

25. If you were free, uncle, you would be happy
To live in collecting and spending

26. What brother of a journey is hostage in the wasteland
Once friendly with settlements of every kind?

27. He lost his way and exhausted his supplies and was cut off
From springs in the desolation of stony ground

28. He calls in a strained voice, no friend with him
While the friend of family and neighbour is absent

29. If he were made to drink the water would quench its burning
In his gut from the intense heat and blazing

30. Until water came after despair, caught
In a cooled skin flask bound with stones

31. When it was clear no waterskin was present
Nor bag, no trace of tracks

32. He lowered his turban until, when a
Cloud’s gloom cleared from sweet flowing water

33. He plunged it in, joyfully turning it
In the water again and again

34. Until, when he had filled and removed it
And said, “I have won ease after hardship”

35. And dragged it back towards the well it returned
And his spirit met the world with frowning

36. On a day more trying than when you denied me
My perfumes and camelhair cloth