1. With her came the caravans, the she-camels journeying
Traversing the emptiness and cutting across the stages

2. She recalled the stony slopes of her Durban and their passes
And excused the water-skins and the stages

3. The season’s spring air reminded her of her familiarity with it
So she came driven by yearning, pregnant

4. Calling joyfully across the air with a melodious voice
That makes whoever is inclined to her yearn

5. A gift of youth or a caravan from Durban
Or Khuzari pearls that seemed threaded

6. When she saw the heat of summer approaching
And the sweet coolness of autumn, a vanishing shadow

7. She neglected her gadding about during her heat period
And marshalled her caravans for the journey

8. After her sewers had passed by her
As you threaded pearls on a string in the wilderness

9. She rises from the lofty, majestic abode
With feet firm against the cold

10. The days of December refused for her
To be seen adorned with ankle-rings

11. So sleet wrought necklaces for her
And frost in her feet, anklets

12. When my friend called me for an outing
And awakened his companion and partners

13. I responded joyfully at her approach
And awakened them, a formidable lion in its lair

14. Then we went out following her tracks
Heading for the water-holes and springs

15. Between an old friend and a loyal companion
For whom my gratitude still endures

16. Dawn had overwhelmed us with its light
When the wing of darkness departed

17. You’d think the light of dawn a confused gleam
And deem the night a retiring dark dye

18. And we’d set up landmarks for her in the stopping places
That the ignorant would think shifting sands

19. And the eyes of Leo, when gloom collects
Kindled for us their glowing embers

20. We shoot at her from beneath, with muskets
That rise to her continuous like shooting stars

21. So nothing flying beneath the birds ascended
Without calamity befalling it, descending

22. By God, the days at Bahuwar Babylon
On which time has been miserly towards us

23. How much did we spend united there
And how much did we gather there embracing all

24. Will such days in it return, do you think
When it had been so fruitful?

25. Alas no! However much one who yearns to regain
Returns to me, time will not complete a cycle