1. Blame me not for drinking wine, though you chide,
Nor seek to end my life, for death's blades bide.

2. Let me be, for wine is sweet to the youth;
Had you but loved me once, reproach I'd abide.

3. I who quaff the wine am shamed, when the cup
Of vintage is passed round the gilded table.

4. Staunch in war, standing fast, of dauntless word,
When souls of warriors in assemblies vie.

5. But for your love, Amawi maid, I ne'er
Had come to Egypt or ever cast my eye

6. Upon its shores, as you forbade my friends
And provisions when I rode forth to fly.

7. They rode with me on steeds as noble decked
As bodies raimented in mail entwine.

8. Dawn rose from Nejd's expanse as though the Abs
Let fly their straight young palms with dates aload.

9. The litter of Layla's camel, and my heart
Is burdened with Layla, though to love her, vain.

10. She refused to give my soul rest in her abode,
For none has e'er tied fast love's cord in twain.

11. Ask the sand-ridges of Siba their lofty dunes,
Wind-rounded, hiding all landmarks from ken.

12. As though camel-leaders guard a cistern there
And water the herds of two hill-lines between.

13. Ten he shelters, seeing life only in them,
Yearning over them, wakeful, watchful e'en

14. When down they knelt, athirst, and he drove them off,
Fearing the arrows of hunters, the cords' keen sway.

15. Till he saw the appointed time had come and gone,
And the first followed the law's latter day.

16. Then he heard the birds' wings whirr and the rocks crash
As the rain poured down, and the water made way.

17. When the clouds uncovered, we saw Shibel's sire
Mid the rainy waste and ruins standing plain.

18. Then he turned and sped them, as though his friends
Were friends of wine, and the camels felt the rein.

19. I joyed when I walked among men, for I found
Zeid's renown had waned at break of day.