1. How Hind of the Hinds drew near with her party,
The party of Houran, squadrons of warriors;

2. But she saw only youths and their saddlebags
And steeds caparisoned with their trappings.

3. And how many a foe and township lies below Layla,
Wherein survivors of captives have a refuge;

4. And a ragged cloak which compels the people to speak of it,
While the bright-faced wander about wearing it.

5. As though the valiant warriors of Hind had not halted at a trysting-place
Nor pastured in a sanctioned enclosure and returned at night;

6. Nor has my flank been scraped by thickets unto blood
Nor a straight-gomg one, or one inclined to injustice, pastured.

7. By it the eye engraves the marble as if they were
Christians prostrate in prayer.

8. When she is told that he who is my slayer
Of love, she says: Steadfast he remains and increases.

9. When she draws near, she holds commerce with my heart
And in the enclosure there is estrangement and repulsion from her.

10. The suns of winter warm stone when they touch it,
Yet in summer, frigid to the bone.

11. Ambergris and musk whose diffusion by her at night
After the miser's grudging is bounteous;

12. I recalled Hind so my heart is strengthened
And her tracks disappeared so the goal is far;

13. I recalled her and my tears poured as if they were
The abundant flow of *juman*, unique among them.

14. Inadvertent, so fear not the perils of her mischief
From the food, the evening lamp kept burning.