1. Spears were left behind from Layla, so I reproached
And was deserted by those who shared my abode

2. So the abodes whose dwellers departed appeared desolate
With foxes prowling calmly inside

3. No barking dog alarmed a listening ear
Nor a rider’s burning fire brought light

4. So he slipped away, leaving naught but his dust trail
Like Mars when stars gaze down from above

5. He outstripped seven foes with his cunning
Just as a playful cub eludes and jibes

6. So he spent the night pure as the sky
Like Suhail star solitary in the planets’ midst

7. A refuge whose paths inside are tribes and ravines
Where an evening’s downpour forced a wanderer

8. Sadees, Ladees, Aytamoos, Shimellah
To which well-guarded ladies travel

9. Don’t you know how war scorns its people
And those seasoned in it have ample trials

10. Nobles and lords fall at its hands
As it destroys them, those swimming ladies

11. It grabs the treasures whose lord
Once hoarded them, though war has robberies

12. When I lose all money save what is measured
For kin in scattered bits of shame’s disgrace

13. A man then sells out his cousin
Held ransom in others’ palms, branches out

14. Come let us silently collude and impose
Upon them allies when no rider chirps

15. Some of you meet without gaining a thing
When the essayists of Ukaz gather

16. Two prisoners bound at Ja’far’s place
Another you have goaded to make trouble

17. How can I wish to be near one I do not visit
When the warring tribes are far from me