1. The gloomy one stalked with his usual swagger,
Until he was between the pond and the bluff.

2. There he encountered at the foot of the dunes, a beast
That pounced and disturbed him in the dark of the night.

3. It drove him with constant harassment,
Until he reached the most dreadful perils.

4. Up to the vicinity of the elbow’s stride for him,
Above the flat plain like the ferocious, angry lion.

5. A pitch-black zebra, no muzzle or udder,
Like a mule that gallops with him into stillness.

6. So the two creatures, set forth with their worries,
To a den, like the nest of a bereaved owl.

7. This is what its claws clung to,
And the gloomy one thought it was no use to struggle or resist.

8. Until when the gazelles arrived and became alert
To its scent, the mother of a herd of six shuddered.

9. Whose wings had shed their feathers,
So they were dazzled by its approach over the hillside.

10. And the gloomy one thought that together they were eight,
That the people of the house were blessed with good fortune.

11. So he feared their attack when he drew near them,
And the gloomy one quickly fled from the middle aged one.

12. With four calves, all huge in physique
Plump with layers of fat and milk.

13. It left the one with fangs his prey,
And it had wandered insane in the night.