1. For whom are ruins and tents that we have stripped bare,
And branches surrounding which we have prayed?

2. Fires were lit until the cooking-pots boiled,
And they were not created as empty pots on the day they were made.

3. The rain left them for years, and a wind
Covered them after their dwellers had forsaken them.

4. Ages have succeeded each other; they have experienced many moons
Desolate for years from both eras.

5. By the slopes of the two plateaus, and where
The softness of the valley meets the sadness of the bending sand dunes,

6. I recognized the dwellings that reminded me
Of their features - deep yearning.

7. And the markings of the diagrams are memories
Of events now passed and forgotten.

8. And a gathering of four complaining at night
To me of adventures we encountered in our youth.

9. So I spoke the speech of my own soul
And what I had harbored silently long ago

10. Of joyful longing - though my longing for them
Would be slighted as feeble.

11. Whisperings of those who went out to me until
They made eyes for whoever feared us.

12. So they hid what they had gathered when
They wanted to meet me until we were hidden.

13. As if their guide led them
Through the thickets of gazelles in the sand.

14. They came suddenly when their rear parts bent
With the heavy weight they carried.