1. I have no time to think of Lubna or Hind,
Nor Anwar, Rabab or playing around.

2. So stop talking to me of Tayy and let me be,
Away from the sand dunes and slopes of Najd.

3. Deserted places with specter-like people,
If seen from afar, frighten me indeed.

4. Each grinning fool's teeth shine like stars,
Woe to me if he sees me and envies me!

5. To remember him diminishes my ablution, and he who forbids him,
May at times see him acting madly.

6. You are my support against fate, so be to me,
A protector from a hostile blamer.

7. His wife is a hen in the coop, but to women,
She has the figure of an ape.

8. She clasped me with the palm of her hand on
My back and started making demands of me.

9. She asked me truthfully but if truth be told,
There is vengeance for my skin in it.

10. By my life, if she tried buying people of the West,
A check, I would have paid the price.

11. Then she came with a writ from the police chief,
With a messenger for judgment, stone-hearted.

12. I said no judge can imprison me,
Since I am free and my lineage destroys me.

13. So she frowned, then cleared her throat and turned away
As she loudly roared and thundered.

14. I said "Do not be angry with me or blame me,
Consider my ill fate and respect my love and friendship for you".

15. I am but the one who gathers poetry,
And where are the generous, so I may gather?

16. If this recession continues in poetry,
I will certainly rise and open my army camp.

17. And you will see me on the day of battle, with many horses
And brave warriors, armed and mailed.

18. What do I lack? My round shield in love wars
And my spotless, seamless coat of mail?

19. Or what does winter bring that I do not have,
A robe I wore, made from my own skin?

20. And on my head, of turbans, is my hair,
With a fine-toothed comb that exhausted the comb maker.

21. Oh gentle breeze, blow and storm
And exhaust yourself, for my domed lodge is here.

22. My companions in it are gnawers of bones,
And owlets along with clouds of mosquitoes.

23. And rats, jerboas, lizards and dormice,
Porcupines, weasels and snakes that crawl.

24. A group of their army in the alleys
Are cats with their armies, and they are my armies.

25. This one calls for bats - who is among you
Like me, unique, alone?

26. I endure ticks and lice in my cloak,
And cannot rid them, not even half.

27. Who can rival me in enduring and racing
The lice in my rags, ankles and waist wrapper?

28. I am of a breed who are embers of evil,
This is my sign above my shin.

29. Fortunate among us is he who,
When he gets up, walks with a piece of rawhide.

30. You will see me, if I sleep, the ashes
Of the furnace are my warm bedding and my pillow beneath my cheek.

31. I warm myself by the fire until my skin
Appears speckled by it like a panther.

32. Such is the state of the bankrupt - the filthiest slave
Would not be satisfied with it as his lodging.

33. If I died in the land of Kirjan of cold,
They would shroud me in a rawhide.