1. After you, there is no attainment or destination
Ever, nor for one hopeful of reprieve, prolongation

2. My camel saddle loosened, the ties freed
After bidding farewell, shall I return?

3. Stop at the abodes, their shadows are long
For they are the wish, though the shadows are long

4. Restrain, even if the tether chafes sorely
And ardor kindles the love, moaning, howling

5. My pact with her, though youth still fresh
A tryst kept, youth and acceptance in tow

6. Days where bliss would rock me, as though
The feast at night came over me, shrouding

7. And the world cast me the fruits of wishes
My rope to her, interlaced, braided, wound

8. And I think, without you, all things waver
Phantoms pass, shadows disperse, dissolve

9. With you I bid farewell to death, though I live
Something, between me and living, estrangement

10. None left but two after you, for the dew
Tears setting, and grief, demolished, crumbling

11. I will teach the watchman the keen of her return
To remain writhing, biting his lips stinging

12. And the sandgrouse mourning his vanished host
Crying louder than the birds, shrilling

13. From your brow there shone down a halo to my eyes
Below the curls as the curls cascade, spilling

14. Your tribe lost you, peerless, and for their secret
Had you lived, not Qabīl would have been killed

15. Had we stayed together, never would we have known
Parting, Mālik nor `Uqayl would have been exiled

16. A barrier came between me and you
The abyss of the road, ignorant, benighted

17. Without you, the means to connection are cut
How to reach you? Where is the arriving?

18. Where does the mindless night tend its flock
When dawn wrests away their light, retreating

19. Your body mingled not with the boughs, hiding
Except as lions mingle with the thickets

20. If the learned or foolish lament you
A learned and a fool have cried in dirges

21. He who looses his tongue to mourn you
Is as if his tongue were fettered, blocked

22. You accustom me, in you, an unaccustomedness
Where my tears descend, falling, rolling

23. I said to the probing skull, questioning,
As tears seize me, flowing, dripping

24. If you claim to eulogize `Umar the sublime
Your tongue has erred, muddled, stumbling

25. Even if sorrow struck the pinnacle of its heavens
Its stars would wander and set, crumbling

26. How did death feast on his glories?
How did he incline to death, when he’s the feast?

27. Who goes to kill my affliction with consolation?
My consolation is the killed, the carcass