1. O friend, such wonder this is
For everything has a cause

2. The people of Suleima were angry
Why were they offended?

3. We brought them no displeasure
Nor did we backbite them

4. They sent their messenger
Who searched and sought

5. That they might find fault with us
And every land they struck

6. Neither non-Arabs are appeased
Nor in it are Arabs appeased

7. But rather my separation and remoteness
They brought near

8. When they rode, as I see
The state in which they rode

9. The slanderer did not stop with them
Lying until they were exhausted

10. Ulayy who often lies
With ardor, love and lies

11. Oh would that our people had taken
A path that they did not accompany

12. When they left me anxious
My heart within me throbs

13. Rather would that I knew, by the youth
In his time made uneasy

14. Can slackness kill a man?
His guide misguided, drunk

15. Remote, frowning, eyes unveiled
By her no veils removed

16. Like a branch, above a
Thicket, peaks not concealed

17. She turns the eyes of Ju'dhir
Who inclines toward her, fluttering

18. The neck of a tender gazelle, her neck
And from it the lips protrude

19. As though her saliva were
Musk, poured upon it

20. Gray hair aged her, from a
Flask, pure, flowing water

21. Asjar, who spent the night with
Clouds striking upon him

22. The sun did not see him, nor
Did lichen cling to him

23. He has, along with the description
I described, a colored infusion

24. Like the pages of scripture
Upon which gold was made to flow