1. We reached the night of calamity,
Rushing to the death of love.

2. We met as we wished,
Unknowingly, away from the throng.

3. A specter wandered in the darkness,
And dawn was behind the veil.

4. My eyes dried up, and in
The gloom of night came to my heart.

5. The absence that had visited went away.
I said nothing to it but "Enough for me!"

6. It turned away, gaining
Nothing from me but my love.

7. So O people we embraced
You are blessed by it from calamity

8. And not brought near barrenness,
Nor promised fertility.

9. How many rebels against
Lovers are in you!

10. And from a rich, contented people
Whose hearts are adorned with beauty.

11. A pearl’s luster is enough for them
As clothing, moist pearls.

12. And edges - God has dyed them -
Their dyeing has made cosmetics needless.

13. And when the beauties saw
In my head white hair like falling stars,

14. And whiteness like white gazelles
Unfit for beating,

15. I was blamed without crime
And punished without sin.

16. She turned away from a home
Where cattle of the fold were stabled.

17. I complained but my complaining
Does not benefit me.

18. So say to the boastful brimming
With pride and arrogance,

19. And whom greed rides
Hard roads full of hardship,

20. And whom blind ambition moves
From East to West,

21. "Leave your travels for sustenance
Sustenance is not won by toil,

22. Sometimes wealth comes
To the gloomy without milking,

23. And how much estrangement there is from union
And how much seriousness from play!

24. Be gentle with fate for fate
Takes and despoils.

25. If it enriches, then for poverty,
And if it ruins, then for leaping up!

26. May God water the Ula who were
Scattering without province,

27. Giving from what the rain clouds
Withheld grudgingly,

28. Giving without debt
Or toil or trouble,

29. And gleaners lighting the way
For the darkness and distress.

30. They eschewed indecency though indecency
arouses;

31. No ugliness touched them
Though in ugliness is what cuts sharply;

32. Throughout time they were not unjust
To people from its ravaging leprosy;

33. And they were not to all mankind
Save a place of fair treatment,

34. With pure, immaculate honor
From defamation and wrongful acquisition.

35. They see the day of ill omen
When it comes without rabble.

36. They take no account of wealth,
Not amassing it through force.

37. For every disreputable thing they have
Tongues that do not receive blame.

38. And oaths - time created them -
For slander, for beating, for profit,

39. For harm, for warding off, for sacrifice,
Without any fear or terror,

40. And minds at the moment of confusion
Without anything of dread.

41. Their day of peace is like their day
Of distress and war.

42. With fresh dew they are rich
Over the twistings of dry wood

43. And came at the hour of panic
To the race-course of the tombs,

44. And in their hands each long,
Smooth spear is firm.

45. You see it leaving the banners pouring
Blood on blood.

46. When they patched the face of the earth
With the red national cloth,

47. And diffused the perfume of musk
Far and near,

48. And refused save trailing the train
And veil,

49. You saw glory carried
On every young man called.

50. They went from me so no pleasure is
Left for me in cool fresh water,

51. Neither closing my eyes or my side
For rest.

52. I had been with them a time,
My mind and heart at ease.

53. When someone turns from me,
I am not bored with his nearness.

54. I fulfilled before fulfilling for him
And for him my passion.

55. When we conveyed him despite ourselves
To the dust,

56. And laid him out on dusty ground
On his side,

57. With no voice to console him
Save the quaking of disaster,

58. We buried passion in the earth -
And how much passion is in the earth!