1. Zunaybah's cord was cut by one who does not sever
The cord of a friend, though fidelity makes her grieve

2. And I was keen to take but little of her belongings
The day she left, with tears profuse that I retrieve

3. Untie your cords, O Zunayb, for I
Am determined to connect with one more apt to cleave

4. And I have severed ties when plans were being hatched
The brother of clamor in matters preconceived

5. With a camel, aged, as if her saddlebags
Were burdened by a weaver’s battens raised aloft,

6. She rose to the heights and sat herself down haughtily
Grieving, a spinster, greeting those she’d loved

7. Until, when pregnant, she roared loud above
A monkey, coveted by crows, aloof

8. I moved her closer when the departure neared
A journey I wished, with purpose undeceived

9. As if, after decline and nightly trek,
A wound that festers foul she had received

10. Snatching her from her baby, yet herself
From him restraining, though an orphan bereaved,

11. Still clambering on her back, importunate,
At the hill’s pinnacle, none to him heaved

12. Until, as evening of her fifth day came,
For greenery, behind her, he perceived

13. He galloped, the twisted valleys outpacing,
Like a bucket whose rope is frayed uneven

14. Until, when his eyes turned on her,
He missed his mark, and fate had intervened

15. He found, off the path, prone on his side
Saffwan, from his prayer rug having leaned

16. So he shot and missed her, his arrow instead
Striking a stone, split, its point it seemed

17. He swooped to protect her privates as she bolted
Like a curtain’s guardian not to be deceived

18. She gasped as she struck his throat with her knees
And a mute, solid kick—she nothing bereaved

19. When he rose over her back, his head held high
Not a thing did they do when he reprieved

20. And I had come at dawn, my friend and I
Gasping, his camel’s shoulders scraped and peeled

21. Pure Arabian steed, when cast he is seen
To seethe, provoked, if ever retrieved

22. As if a rending lion’s paw he were
Whose swipes fending dogs cower, bowed, believed

23. I treated him with cure upon cure, and gave him
A gift, as a darling friend may receive

24. His share is the grayness of old age
And the mud—now tottering, he won’t be relieved

25. Yet if we race him, he’s the first to burst forth
His rider gloating, spurred on, perceived

26. Nay, many’s the day we’ve confined his dashing
We give and delight in the friend; he’s reprieved

27. And I have outstripped the enamored with a draft
So pure and delicious—deep gulps he’d breathe

28. An eye whose pure hue is the red
Of blood when a sacrifice is cleaved

29. It distracted me one day—made heedless
Some lads of their search, though clothed and conceived

30. Oh, the ache from charming friends of scant esteem
Who came to me, stumbling—just three!

31. She kept watching me, looking around
Dubious, suspicious, while I deceived

32. Remaining determined, drawing me in
To the den, none alive to relieve

33. Had my sword been in hand I’d have struck her
From me—but my side was naïve

34. I did swing it, and my blow brought down
Her hands, like the falling of leaves

35. A ruin, that—had I torn with a saber
Enough! My words here should achieve

36. And I felt overjoyed at what some days have dealt
Though many a day has been grief

37. After she who bore a kinswoman, shall I complain
Of Time’s injustice? Disturbed or aggrieved?

38. And I know full well, it cannot be helped,
To the fates I am subject, shall I rage or be peeved?

39. Aaden perished, then the line of Muharraq
Left a land and what they amassed was bereaved

40. Theirs were the two Harithas, and theirs
Was the Kinsman's brother Tubba’, long believed

41. I counted my fathers to the clay whence we’re made
And called them, and found they nothing perceived

42. They went before I knew them, taken by
A ghoul who came, on a path layered and weaved

43. Inevitable is loss and sorrow, so wait
In your people’s land, or another to grieve

44. There will come a day, bitter and stark
When you are mourned, shrouded, nothing conceived