1. Do you remember the days in Najd when we would string
Pearls and corals together?

2. The meadows would bloom with flowers
In the dwellings of the living, the living full of vigor.

3. Life was pure, pleasing to behold,
It breathed life and fragrance into our souls.

4. Yet the eyes of the seer, though they yearn,
See only black oryx amid white gazelles.

5. The sweet-lipped fair ones are gone from every tent,
Since the departure of lovers long ago.

6. One harsh of heart we never saw softened
By the charms of youth or made gentle.

7. Love and its days have passed, its rule is done,
As though the days of play had never been.

8. Would that I had bid farewell to beloved ones,
And not recalled hard neighbors over wine.

9. So spare me your blame when I remember them,
Though you mean well, it is hurtful to do so.

10. Can you see me content with what I have now,
Or my thirsty heart quenched and satisfied?

11. Once my tears were precious before we parted,
Now all is cheap since those dear ones went away.