1. On the abode with the two pomegranate trees aslant,
Sway the breasts of beautiful women walking proudly.

2. So we pitched our tents according to a certain plan,
Dragging them from summer, while the tents of longing sway.

3. A Shami or Qatari beauty,
With the light down of her two arms interwoven.

4. She arouses and reveals traces of an abode in Najwa,
Defiled by those from Dhi al-Bitaah marsh.

5. Its landmarks are camel litters and a small mosque,
A gate, and the pounding area of threshing floors.

6. And the tethering place of piebald steeds and a fireplace,
With blackened earth from its fires glowing.

7. It spread with its heights and left its lower parts,
Like wings of birds fluttering between them.

8. Three spent a month by the fire, compelled by
The firmness of performing prayers to bend down.

9. As if, in the quarter of the abode every evening,
There were councils with intermingled branches between them.

10. The large tent of goat hair changed, and around it
Were the resting places of she-camels moaning over them.

11. The springs of al-Jihash turned away, and the summer
Pastures with their young in their bosoms welcomed them.

12. It turned aside the two sides of a howdah, while behind it
Was a Uqarawi she-camel, Khalfah, swaying.

13. We knew Salma to be safe, and lucky in life,
And Su‘da to be intimate with the minds of men.

14. The nights of Su‘da’s luck, if seen by a monk,
With a constant church in his abode, would make him confused.

15. For neither his religion, nor his fervor for passion,
Are helpers for passion. They are the camels roaring with grief.

16. And the day we met her at Tayman, she stirred up
The remnants of youth. My heart is still perplexed!

17. One morning she appeared to the son of sixty pilgrimages
As a cupbearer of a troop with swords in their sheaths clashing.

18. When she chews her toothstick, it is perfumed with
A gum that traders find profitable when they mix.

19. Su‘da is a ransom for every woman of distinction,
And another is Sabantah, eminent in performing the rites.

20. She fed on the corpses of strong young camels, made lawful
By the shaggy-haired beasts of prey that tore them apart.

21. She pastured on the breasts of calves, a destroyer like a Khamshah she-camel,
With a bundle of young ostriches walking between them.

22. Do you not know, O mother of Sa‘d, that I
Am excited by the finest heavy rain and stir it up?

23. Preoccupation from afar has afflicted me, so the night
Enveloped me in deliverance from bones that crack.

24. And unkempt morningsluggishness from drowsiness,
While the tracks are fresh and the bones crackle over them.

25. We rested in the shade of canopies on an erect
Hill, while the clouds pass beneath us and twist.

26. You see the lightning of Harith in the Golan below him,
And battalions with their towers twisting at their edges.

27. We drank from a sea belonging to Umayyah, below which
Is Damascus and rivers with their strong currents twisting.

28. When they finished the pilgrimage, they intended
To set out again. Resolution twists resolve.

29. With them was a guide in the wilderness, and a noble
Visitor of the courts of kings who brings gifts and twists.

30. They traversed undulating and barren lands,
Vast expanses whose emptiness brought them dread.

31. When the return journey drew near, and the camels’
Feet picked their way, their shoulders twisting beneath the loads,

32. When their bags were unloaded from their backs at a ridge,
And their saddlebags from their flanks and twists,

33. You would have seen the packs on their humps like a flock
Of birds following them, the most ardent in desire twisting.

34. When the shifting sands behind us were stirred up,
And bubbles appeared, their necks entwining.