1. My brethren journeyed in my mind, for every neighbor
My heart obliged itself to befriend.

2. And I was vexed by what still vexes me,
A gazelle with bashful, languid eyes.

3. For him is a cool, shaded refuge in the protected
Depths, when the hot months come and bake its sands;

4. With your eyes you glance at each lovely roe
And every free man with a radiant face journeying abroad,

5. You see him, though you cannot have him save that
He remains a sickness latent in a man of patience.

6. When my heart pines or passion disturbs it,
It has no restraining today nor patience holding it back.

7. It disobeyed each deterrent and insisted on its own way,
So it was like a kinswoman concocting intrigues.

8. It was a wine-cup, moving about bones whitened
By the winds, raising up water till it was troubled.

9. Like a tent, when the water splits its seams,
Laying bare the stores of a vintner who reproves it:

10. Then after refusing and holding back it brought us
Together after we had offered all we owned as her price.

11. I drank it down, and so did lads like houris in the pavilions of Eden,
Noble, when a matter tries men's endurance.

12. And I said, "Drink. God give you life. Outdo
Our girls today." And when we were happy and it had circled amongst us,

13. And we said, "We have had enough, the traces are apparent,"
And set off slowly leading our mounts by the halter,

14. In the blessing of a night whose latter part stretched out,
And the riding-beasts were girded to the saddle-bags as though they were

15. Wildcats from which the water had been withheld, so that their offspring were yellow,
Polished the smooth pommels, striking the pebbles, what time their driving-camels rested,

16. The open country twists, and the twisting is straight in every track,
When the guide betakes himself onwards and urges his beast to keep pace.

17. The saddle-cloths covered them; and the trailing distant one runs as though it were
The chemise of a girl whose waist-wrapper had slipped down from her breasts.

18. She seeks increase of her trailing skirts with her breast,
When the day takes refuge in the shade and meets it.

19. So he kept challenging her, like pillar-traces of high-built arches
Whose stumps crumbled when their summits broke away.

20. And every warrior was a turban on the head, from that with which
His claws had clothed it when he was turbulent.

21. For I am forgetful in my youth, and my journeying is not by
Any riding-beast, and my life will not be prolonged.

22. And verily the backs of excellent horses are our vehicles every day over the land,
Displaying our deserts to each man of past days and present.

23. There is none left of the living, but some heavily-laden
Arab of Rabī'ah, and their migrant kinsmen.

24. And we are a people; you will not see the people resort
More quickly to our abodes than their thoughts come to them.

25. When the tic sets moving the diseased part of its body,
And its salient fangs gape, it is bereft of milk.

26. When war was stirred up for the ascent, they did not find
For us a side to climb by save the side that endured us.

27. We obey and rebel, according to whether that is
Our commander, though we are not always agreeing with him,

28. And man does not know the unseen before he sees
It, nor the matter before its consequences reveal it.