1. We stood with the she-camels one day at Salu',
At an abode of ours that had become desolate.

2. We heaved deep sighs and let fall copious tears
That grief for the ruins drew copiously from our eyes.

3. We stood there while the she-camels moaned plaintively,
As though the camels' distress surpassed our own.

4. Passionately fond! But if not, yet a love
That had been with us and was gone away.

5. We halted in a howdah old and worn
And by halting renewed the flood of tears.

6. And I said to my companion, "Is there no cure?
For passion has stirred up sickness in the band."

7. Many a day that house had seen me stop
And leave it, while the lightning flashed, to find relief.

8. It has a right over one who loves passionately,
So hurry, O Hudhaym, and fulfill your duty to it.

9. Weep copiously, O Sa'd, for my tears are blood,
If indeed your tears are but water.

10. Why do you not weep copiously for it
When I have wept tears of blood for it?

11. The ruins well-nigh slay me with despair
For their people, yet keep me alive with hope.

12. Passion! Its secret is not displeasing
If one day it is displeasing.

13. How often passion startles from a quarter
Whence it was thought to be far away!

14. It is as though the pipes made the camels dance
And so stirred in us a moaning or a cry.