1. For whom is the abode like the white anklets,
Its era is from the spans of the first life,

2. With tent pegs, so the highest of traces,
Then coos, then valleys, then mountains,

3. Then sprouts, then plains for it,
And the highest sandy tracts that roam,

4. So the going of the balls has made its people
Every walker whom the sands busied,

5. The abode of my people before the vicissitudes of time afflicted them
And a life of disorder,

6. And all-inclusiveness of coffee whose morning
Was in the early mornings,

7. A she-camel marked it,
Or a newborn whose neck skin is coarse,

8. And the pot was placed in it patches
Like what is patched with thick stitched cloth,

9. So we drank a drink free of sediment,
And we flavored it with flavoring after it dripped,

10. And neighs of noble, purebred steeds
Of white descent and of the lineage of meadows,

11. Work was poured upon it constantly
So when the late afternoons came, it echoed,

12. Answering were citadels firmly constructed
Purebreds that the extinct wild cows did not drive out,

13. Like the music of jinn in the tinkling
Of sounds among which there is no discordance,

14. So from its nostrils foam ran
Like what the acid plants on a mountain produced,

15. And we knew a tremor that seized it
So we matched it to a pony fine of build

16. The wither of smooth skin succeeded
After the smooth-skinned one a year or became smooth

17. And we thought that it had overcome it
So we startled it with oohs and haas,

18. The whip was raised but was not struck with it
Yet the impact of it showed and clamored,

19. Sufficing from the sense of what had touched it
And the insides of a heart that endured,

20. So its servant’s cheeks leveled out equally
And the spit flowed evenly and moderated,

21. So it twittered with a croaking modulated,
The horse blanket around its waist so it could jump away,

22. The night cooled upon it so it slipped down,
Kharit, dark browed, Van Dyke brown, white stockinged,

23. Crooked legged, the fetlocks shaved,
So the camel caravan descended until its emptiness

24. The two footed rabbit runs in a lope
My companions said when they saw it approaching,

25. “What do you reckon its condition is?” I said it approaches,
Would that all of Qais had cut it off

26. Into waterless tracts, then barren lands, then salty flats,
The mounts, then the highest pregnant she-camel

27. Then the twists of passing and the legs’ edges
Making Syria an oven for them

28. And if they intend to, excellent is the place transferred
His death a reward and his life an enrichment

29. And to Him secluded from harm retreated
My neighbor asked me about my slave girl

30. And should the owner of dissolvement ask about
She asked me about people who perished

31. Time drank away at them and ate
They reached rule but when they reached

32. With loss and that lifespan ended
And time placed a curse upon them

33. So they were annihilated, none left but few
And it showed me confusion in the wake of them

34. The confusion of the distraught or the deranged
I chide the people but do not chide them

35. Indeed, only one astray chides
If only I knew when what passed passed

36. And the matter clarified for God, the Timeless
What are we supposed to think of people who killed

37. The people of Siffin and the Camel’s companions
And the son of Affan, pious, Muslim

38. And the flesh of corpses when bodies are transferred
Where do they sleep when they wrong

39. Or do they sleep in fear and panic
And they have a mark when you discern them

40. Clarifying the suspicion of one who asked
So a rainy winter blew sharply

41. From a Rabi` whenever it lightened, it rained heavily
It prevented betrayal so I did not intend it

42. And the brother of betrayal, when he intended, did
Fear of God and that I am a man

43. Whose mention is only like a blazing fire
They plot my murder among themselves

44. Approaching me, the edges of the swords
If you see my worry has busied me

45. And when worry busies, it occupies
Like the swaying gait of a pregnant she-camel

46. It jostles the meadow with its dangling teats
The ocean fish did not contend with me over a muzzle

47. Nor the Nile fish nor the moray eel
When they are the best of a living clan of Suqah

48. And tread the land, be it plain or mountain,
For a stranger who stands among them asking

49. And a neighbor who comes seeking lodging
They rush humbly to the one calling them

50. And to the guest when the guest descends