1. In the morning the streetsweeper made a date
With passionate longing disregarding every eye

2. They were like shy gazelles
With the bellies of water skins sagging with dew

3. They stood over the old woman for half a day
Doing the chores and errands

4. They glanced slyly away and pretended
To be busy with the hot summer tasks

5. But when the sun declined they slipped away
To gossip on a porch relaying news

6. They talked and laughed
Like the sound of sandals slapping in mud

7. As if a bucket was placed before someone unlucky
Whose spilling water turns to clear streams

8. They have charms where one can see coyness
As you have reddened the cheeks of a fawn

9. Like the mirror of a flirt they flaunted themselves
Your eyes would shine if you saw them

10. Humming tunes when their hair is loose
Youthful and free of veils

11. Walking with a swaying gait
Her muscles supple to the point of dissolution

12. Your eyes insisted on flooding
And exaggerating with their tears

13. As if they were ravines crying for help
Sending out streams of tears

14. Their kohl is running and the water flows
Through it all streaming down

15. For two years of our heyday
Our singing of them grew less but continued

16. The days of the town bid us farewell
No words remained for a speaker to say

17. What night will come to you in your oblivion
When you wake up and see no trace of them

18. Abu Hanash distresses us
And Talq and Ammar and more like them

19. I see them as my companions until
The night grows cold and packs up

20. Then I become like one who hopes for flowers
But reaches a barren people

21. I see an old man who bears burdens
His chest white like a sword’s blade

22. Noble souls who do not turn away a guest
When the livestock return at night

23. With them are the pride of glories on the day of gathering
When courage and deeds are counted

24. And chaste ones whom no lewdness has touched
Who forgot our union and asked only after our health

25. And cavaliers who the summons to them
Makes you ask, “when did the knights ride or not?”

26. Their knighthood is not mere pretense and fancy
Nor a reputation, if reproached, declines