1. Alas, at night in the town we kept knocking,
After the darkness draped the tails of the stars and darkened them.

2. It crept upon us, the houses, markets and all
Who were eloquent or inarticulate therein.

3. In the evening came to us of Quraish, and 'Aamir,
And of Gatafan, a grieving assembly that grieved.

4. They wiped their mounts' croups in the evening
As the down had adorned the decorated camel gear.

5. As if the Pleiades, after the night had departed,
Brought to us the rooster's crowing that induced slumber.

6. The free woman urged ahead her camel with a litter
Whose streaming banners trailed, and saddle cloths of leather.

7. She herds a colt in foal that seems as if
Suhail rose in the cheek of one dark-lipped.

8. The slit-eared camels, unmilked, in her herd
Were by last night too high for her to milk.

9. He packed a bundle of dry sjubar-wood, fragments of dry 'ud and sammar,
Taking from their edges as much as he could take.

10. He spends the night bent over it, sleeping
On what little provision remained good to eat.

11. He remains next to the sand-dune, disturbing it,
Enduring its soil lest it be demolished.

12. He spends the night, fretful about the sand beneath him,
Bleating to a ewe lost in the sands.

13. As if he were a Magian who came without his shade
And the dew died off on both his sides, so he was stripped bare.

14. In the morning he sways like an 'ud stick, his trunk
Creaking from bondage, were it not for his weakness it would have snapped.

15. Fears dissuade him from his concern
As they dissuaded the shepherd from the saddle-patched camel.

16. We have a glorious, splendid present and past, as if
It were lofty pillars of honor and generosity.

17. We apportion the interiors of the dwellings to our people
When asked, without their being demolished.

18. To us belongs their origin, and to the generous their hearts,
And we treat our lord with fairness, even if he were unjust.

19. By her of excellent character I swear equal to it -
I have censured myself whenever the cock crowed.

20. I have rejected her coldly and rapped her cheek gently
With a sweet basil stick he had waved and so made melodious.