1. The ruins have changed since Salma's passing,
And the house is desolate without Sulaima.

2. If only Salma were here to tell me,
Relating the loss of my jewelry and secrets.

3. Yet ill intention took hold of Salma,
And the caravan of time moved on.

4. As if after our separation, my heart
Was ripped to shreds, scattered to the lands.

5. If only fate would bring together those I long for,
I would finish my rites and journeys.

6. The she-wolves of the howling tribe wait to ambush him,
Until they seize him from afar, by evil and harm.

7. A grim, frightening disaster I fear its calamities-
I cut through it with my tears flowing free.

8. With a pregnancy like a pregnant she-camel,
After my travels and journeying far,

9. When the sister of desolation ties her bonds,
The powers of birth fail, no baby delivered.

10. As if she were a Roman tower built
With bricks, stones and rocks galore,

11. Or an abandoned place, dust covered,
Where rain has gathered in a soggy marsh.

12. She spends the night by sandy dunes that shelter her
From the north wind's pouring showers.

13. She tosses and turns all night, her eyes
Pelted by heavy rains and rumbling thunder.

14. When she tries sleeping, a torrent keeps her awake,
Gushing through and eroding the soil.

15. As if when lightning illuminates her joy,
She is a lamp, shining bright with fire.

16. Her tent is of smooth silk,
Its poles branded as if by fire.

17. Until night departs, the sky clears of
Its dark cover, bare and naked.

18. She hears a voice or senses them like
Jinns creeping, fleeing some crime.

19. So she stirs, angrily mixing
Accusations and excuses.

20. She sends them off, scattering dust
As the pulling of strings shreds cotton.

21. Until I said, they have outrun her
And overwhelmed her with claws and fangs.

22. She glanced at them with watchful eyes
And stabbed the inferior peers, again and again.

23. She chased off her attackers by waving
Her garment, a stranger amidst a group.

24. They fled from her stench, though she was
Scattered by the impact and traces.

25. Until he crept away stealthily to relieve himself,
Now herding males who were once free.

26. A lone horse, serenaded by the birds of the meadow,
As nomads sing with the tambourine at night.

27. As if bathing in the dew of lilies
Or leaving a perfumer's shop,

28. Drinking aged wine that intoxicates me
Without jars or anything to restrict it.

29. I competed with its sweet fragrance, as the rooster crowed
And the time of departure drew near.

30. It pours from the vines of Anah, so plentiful
The Euphrates diverts to flow in its channel, bitter and thick.

31. It ferments through three stages until
It's halfway from being bitter to mature.

32. A cure sipped and tasted with the eyelids and throat,
Neither pitch-black nor tortured by fire.

33. It wears two robes, one of spider webs,
The other of fiber and resin.

34. A blonde well-aged after years stored away
In cellars amongst gardens and rivers.

35. An untouched maiden whom suitors failed to court
Until a worshipper courted her with a dinar.

36. In a house of torn garments and worn abayas,
With nothing but rags as attire.

37. When I said let's settle on a price,
Her stingy soul recoiled like a conniving peddler.

38. As if the cure, when I insisted on the deal,
Was a scoundrel, outcast among the moons.

39. When they came to her with a lantern and their abode,
She went to them, a sly fox, wild and cunning.

40. They stab her above the glass, ancient and unlined,
As if musk was looted among our belongings.

41. I swear by the Lord of the dancing girls, and what
Remains of Mecca's veils and curtains,

42. By the sacrifice, when its fields turn red,
On the day of ritual and stoning and slaughter,

43. By Zamzam's hovering bats,
And Yathrib's support and youth.

44. Quraysh would have forced and frightened me,
And Quraysh would have abandoned me in poverty.

45. The generous tribe of Harb, though death
Had come upon me and I awaited my supporters.

46. With them, darkness lifts from the living,
Until it rises beyond hearing and sight.

47. A people who, when they battle,
leave women be, even if pure.