1. Is Khawla's camel rope still connected after separation,
Or are you, in your distant abode, too preoccupied?

2. Khawla has settled in a neighboring house,
Among the roosters and elephants of the city.

3. They strike the heads of foreigners at dawn,
Among them are horsemen, unflinching and unswerving.

4. My heart was stirred by the memory of her,
A subtle, delicate imprint that you have tied.

5. A subtle imprint like that of my feverish brother
When the eagles swooped down on him one day.

6. For lovers there are days to be remembered
And for intentions before separation there are interpretations.

7. Indeed, she who pitched a tent and migrated
To the garrison city, her love has gone too far.

8. So turn away from her and let no task distract you,
Truly, youthful indulgence after adolescence is misguidance.

9. With a firm bridge like the tall tree, smooth,
On it hangs lamp and tobacco.

10. A she-camel gestures with her tail when startled,
On her remains the traces of rich herbage.

11. Parching the channels where torrents flow
When the flood recedes and messengers depart.

12. She still commands respect with her posture,
Swaying gently from the roof's edge.

13. When the people strive hard together on a journey
As if tattooed with pine resin.

14. A path where you see partridges surrounding it
As if encircled by little cooking pots.

15. Pots filled with pure oil, unadorned,
Without palm fronds or threads upon them.

16. And few people have legs for marching, so they limp,
And some medicine remains in the remedies.

17. The camel-lambs are kneaded to elicit their riches,
From them, the select and the inferior are differentiated.

18. Fully loaded she-camels with their saddle-bags,
Their cargo towering above the people.

19. Guiding the riders are alert, sleepless ones
When passions and desires are kindled.

20. Trembling she-camel rising with the packs,
Bells ringing from her shoulders.

21. Snub-nosed, her trail visible on the ground,
As if traced on tanned leather.

22. She takes a few steps then turns back,
Her limit is the tethering peg's capacity.

23. You see the pebbles scattered from her hooves
As necklaces of shells are rattled.

24. As if on the day the people arrived, she is a
Tall, cross-marked traveler, shackled.

25. Wearing a new loincloth over his waist-wrap,
And pants of silk fabric as leggings.

26. His face shaded by his headcloth, servants below it,
And further below, leggings to his ankles.

27. A hunter hurries with his dogs at dawn
As if smeared with rays of the rising sun.

28. He takes refuge in a disheveled palm-leaf hut
Where an ape-like creature crouches like a fetus.

29. He dangles meager, starved prey,
Which, when caught, cannot yelp.

30. He is followed by the mangy females
On them he inflicts the whip’s discipline.

31. I came upon the people when drowsiness overtook them,
So I said, as they descended from their valley, “Rest

32. until mid-day then depart renewed,
Surely, the water-skin has some remains and dripping.”

33. When we arrived, we set up the shade of a porch,
And stew for the people bubbled in pots.

34. A cooking pot into which the cook had placed meat, unchanged
Whatever the boiling did to it, it remained edible.

35. Then we stood up toward trained she-camels,
Their saddle-cloths at our hands as napkins.

36. Then we journeyed on sturdy, well-trained camels,
Their kneeling urged on by prodding and coaxing.

37. They kneel into the water at a ruinous watering hole,
Near it are the belongings of riders and supplies.

38. We hope for the generous one’s redemption, whose bounty is beautiful,
And all good with him is accepted.

39. A Lord who has granted us entrusted wealth,
And everything God has granted is an entrustment.

40. Yet man strives for what he cannot attain,
And life is stingy, cautious, and planning.

41. An unmarried man whom fate has abandoned in the deadly month,
So loss flows continually upon him, and he is urinated on.

42. No voice alarmed him in the ruins and vacant dwellings,
Except the howls of hyenas and ogling eyes.

43. Like the chicks of ostrich threads upon him,
Confusion, insanity, and visions.

44. I was startled by beasts while they were still,
Like cattle at dawn, paralyzed.

45. With arrows for a face like a mangy camel,
A gaze in which beauty and tallness are complete.

46. Bare legs, walking the path,
Hardened and chapped by riding the cold.

47. As if his wound, when standing upright,
Were white hair, dyed with henna and washed.

48. When provoked, he exposes curved teeth
In them are large molars.

49. He bounds with them, and they comply, while he is able,
In their palms, when aroused, are youthful impatience.

50. I wandered at dawn, when the sun’s halo cracked
And below it, of the night’s darkness, some remains.

51. When the rooster calls, inviting some of his flock
At daybreak, though they are an accursed folk.

52. To wakefulness, so he roused me with his tune
Loincloth loose like the sword’s bare blade.

53. A tear which, when matters get serious, widens,
Associating with frivolity and pleasures, lost.

54. Until we reclined on furnishings adorned
With fine embroidery, pairs of ornaments.

55. On it are chickens, on it lions, subdued,
Of everything seen on it, statues.

56. In a chamber built by Banu and adorned,
In it, lamps illuminate the night, ignited.

57. We have a vessel like the basin of a pool— destruction
Has shattered it—beside it, the jug is stuffed.

58. The cup’s blossoming, squeezed at its mouth,
Above the drinker’s head is a wreath of basil.

59. Cooled with the water’s proportion between them
Is love like the kernels of wild donkeys, peeled.

60. The cup brims over, foam atop it,
And yogurt from goat’s milk, blended.

61. With it runs a fair server, speaking eloquently
Above the trays, and in the bowl, spices.

62. Then I woke up with a pounding headache, stuffy nose
The scents and pleasures are justification.

63. Passing time, and sometimes poetry justifies us,
Like gilded prose, carried.

64. Its edges surrounded by charming, friendly ones
In their voices for hearing drink, chanting.

65. Coming to us, entertaining us, and we unleash them,
Garments and trousers tossed over them.