1. I seek solace from every beloved and intimate friend,
And from the delights of a daughter of Mudlij,

2. And the two sons of Waleed, until it was said: who can deter youth
From you, when you are not shy or hesitant?

3. Do I see you, whenever you arouse me after solace
Mention Layla once and become restless?

4. And I remember Salma in times gone by
Like a bleary-eyed she-camel frequenting encampments

5. Haughty among people because of her qualities
Becoming thin when fasting during daytime

6. At Batn al-Aqeeq or Khirj Tubalah
Whenever you find the heat of the sun scorching

7. She wanders around in the crescent of Banu Amir
And if she becomes emaciated, she heads to the valleys of Manij

8. She entertains the forbearing with talk which delights him
And the voices of singers, or the swaying of a howdah

9. And a white camel, its humps appearing
Against the desert like a Yemeni striped hyena

10. It has an enclosure to which a lovesick she-camel inclines
To a trenchant, curved waterhole

11. Fearful, as if the birds in its dwellings
Were assemblies of buzzards on the corpse of sorrow

12. I scolded it, an Arhabiyyah she-camel in heat
While the color of night was like yellow myrrh

13. And one rousing from his sleep answered me
With two inarticulate syllables from a lisping tongue

14. So I said to him, spend an hour with your friends!
And he sprang up like an undrawn sword

15. Think me not, O son of Aznam, an impetuous fool
Whom a wandering vagabond has served hastily seared meat

16. I have affection for the noble among youths
As well as care, and I weave together ties with the wicked

17. Nobility belongs only to one with good character
When he pardons the sin of an evil man, obstinate

18. Indeed I seek men, seeking
And am neither confused nor muddled

19. I am the son of Riyaah, and my paternal uncle is Jawshan
And I was not carried in the bosom of a black wet nurse