1. Dark-skinned beauty unrelated to the dove,
Nor coveting the field of generosity,

2. As if beneath her three maidservants -
Drawers of water from the cistern.

3. In her body a flame plays,
Like the flash of lightning in the dark.

4. Her speech, when it grows faint,
Is ineloquent as speech goes.

5. Though she taste no food,
Her belly is filled with food.

6. No friend of hers has failed
To visit, drunk or sober.

7. And whenever a guest returns,
Studded are the carpets around her.

8. Mighty, when she boils with rage
She melts the dried-out bones in her boiling.

9. As if the jinn had mounted her
Upon three solid pillars.

10. She has a smoke that confuses
The swooping vultures.

11. As if fire had clothed her
In yellowed coats of mail.

12. Our property has always been free
Without shame or reluctance;

13. She takes from it a share for food
And the rest for gifts.