1. The people come visiting, this is their Yemeni land
From the countries, and this is their home, Tabas.

2. They said, "We heard talk about you." I said to them,
"May God not banish except a group who wore abuse."

3. They want a building I don't know how to build
So if I spoke truly, their faces scowled and frowned.

4. God has helped us, each in his livelihood,
He faces hardship, so above us is folded coarse wool.

5. What do you want? No money was made easy for me
To be borrowed, nor knowledge to be grasped.

6. Do you ask an ignorant one to benefit you,
And milk a barren she-camel whose udder has dried?

7. Nothing pleases people except the words of a deceiver,
As if a people, when they are bought, are corroded.

8. They exhausted all they built in losses,
So their bodies were like their worn out clothes.

9. I am wretched in that I cannot help you,
And the turns of fate hold back.

10. Who are the Yemenis that they spend the night, and their fire
Is youthful, and Suhail is among them, kindled?

11. And for the Bedouin that tents be built for him
Among laughing women, some frowning, some frowning?

12. It is as if the secrets of people, even if hidden,
The breaths and glances of eyes are extinguished when confined.

13. Their faces have talked about their hidden depths,
So they came to you with their whispers which they did not vocalize.

14. Our hours are like the hyenas of nightfall, if they become dusky
At night, then the wolf in its colors is dusky.