1. I chose my endeavor even if I found no choice
And took off with determination even if I met with heavy rain

2. I was ignorant so when ignorance was of no use
I was forbearing, so I widened the times with dignity

3. To what extent do you blame me for my own misfortunes
And multiply reproach of me openly and in secret

4. I travel with them under death and above it
So the dove of peace trips over me and falls

5. And whenever they met me they would reject me
They would return as the sincere friend desired, heatedly

6. So by God the taste that soured its flavor is to God
And by God Jesus whom few befriended

7. A dark horse whose lineage men do not know
It clothed me with a robe and veil

8. Waters crept into me privately, their waters
Frothing when the water of the mounts foamed

9. So they tore the garment of the night until it was as if
I had flown with them on both my sides aflame

10. And the moon stayed up watching me while it was as if
From fear it met perfection with concealment

11. It lagged behind the army of the dawn due to its weakness
So the army of darkness detained it shackled

12. And the gazelles met the gazelles, as if
The Pleiades were conversing with them in whispers

13. And the tribe's madman spent the night thinking he
Had come closer to the people of the sky by his shrine

14. Whenever the Simpleton extended his palm to the sparks
To light from some of the planets a fire

15. Whenever my shiftless camel was tied in my abode
You would think it a resting place or its cooing an uproar

16. You'd think the snoring of sleep the growl of a deterrent
So you'd cut its tether or spend the night wakeful

17. They looked out on the expanse of a blue pasture
Nibbling around it fresh and blossoming greenery

18. When watered from it they would drink as if
They had drunk before, the light, a healing potion

19. When the Hijazi lightning flickered they looked away
And craned when the Iraqi lightning blazed

20. And they cooed after the vanishing as if
He had ardently winked to them for rescue

21. And the ground feels from them no weight
To frighten a flock or alarm a watchman

22. Trampling on the snake while it is prostrate
She walks on without cutting short its hissing

23. And seizing the mother partridge that displayed herself heedlessly
Bringing about her an alarm and hasty flight

24. As if you had belittled time and its people
As slaves and were not content with the plain as a home

25. Deaths cast shadows in your swords when sparks fly
From beneath the window screens aflame

26. For if the cooing of pigeons were swords
They would be seas engulfing perdition and gloom

27. As if the dust of earth was not content with its honor
So it rose up seeking company in the sky

28. With every buried corpse that did not graze when destiny stamped
Or drink the discharge of conception sober

29. When a horseman mounted it, he thought
He had attained amidst the stars a position

30. And I did not see horses like them, Arabian
Pursuing a foe or defending a sanctuary

31. Harsher than it against those it battled
And farther from it into the lands in flight

32. A triumphant one tasks it with the distant land
Erecting glory exposing no shame

33. Their food reddened carrion, vultures
As they used to be fed dried meat skillfully

34. They heard the commotion before the neighing and did not scatter
Until they were cloaked in dust

35. If they sprang from a rested stance, you would think it
Surging mountains or flaming heat

36. The obscurity of their dust blinds the birds of prey
Dropping them dead, hock and pinion

37. And in it the master feels awe so whenever
The crescents shone to his eyes he marched on

38. Every skilled one guided him to what he desired
To be for the causes of attacks an artisan

39. As if deaths were an army of scattered motes
Taking to the souls in it a passage