1. Abandoned by its people, Malhoub lies desolate
The wintry stars above it, the sins below

2. With camels kneeling, gazelles resting
Groups of does, and fawns leaping to and fro

3. A barren desert, rough terrain left behind
Not one Arab remains, they have all had to go

4. If its people are replaced with beasts
And disaster has changed its fortunes and woe

5. A land successive nations have inherited
Each one who enters is opposed by a foe

6. Either killed or destroyed
And gray hair is disgrace for him with locks snow

7. Your eyes, their tears like a flood
As if their condition causes you grief and foreboding

8. A desert plain or a surging spring
A hill beyond it with flashes of lightning aglow

9. Or a hollow between valleys holding water
With streams flowing beneath as it ebbs to and fro

10. Or a brook amid palm tree shade
With water trickling below it soft and slow

11. You cry out, but how can there be a response?
When old age has overtaken you, stifled and low

12. If its state is transformed and its people changed
There is nothing novel or strange in this ebb and flow

13. Or if its air is left vacant
As desolation and decay return anew

14. Then all who enjoyed bounty are now destitute
And every hopeful one is denied and laid low

15. All owners of camels inherit but beasts
And every looted one is plundered of what they owe

16. All who are absent will eventually return
Except those dead who will never come back from below

17. Is it like a barren woman or a fertile womb?
Or sheep gone astray, unlike one with a shepherd close?

18. You may succeed as you wish, but weakness can frustrate
And the wary one is sometimes duped by the clever foe

19. People are not admonished unless fate admonishes them
And blaming brings no benefit or balm for their woes

20. Except for resolute hearts unwilling to bend or change
And how many a loved one later becomes a bitter foe?

21. Help those in a land where you reside
And say not: “I am a stranger kept far from those I know.”

22. An outcast far away may be reunited, while
One near is severed, though his hopes were high before

23. If you ask people, they may forbid you,
But asking God, you will never be denied or left empty-handed, no

24. As long as one lives embroiled in lies
Life for him is torture, anguish and heavy woe

25. Nay, but I have oft reached meadows, traveling
While my camel, fearing highway thieves, plodded careful and slow

26. Its feathers trembling and fluttering all over
From a heart afraid and filled with dread of the foe

27. One dawn, traveling briskly, my companion wise
My camel delicate, gentle and following close

28. An ugly train, its saddlebags sagging
As if its driver were an unsteady, drunk dromedary unforeknowing

29. Its litter tossed aside, neither stately nor elegant
No embellishment there, nor adornment for a show

30. As if it were wild donkeys’ foals
Faces scarred, bearing the marks of brands to and fro

31. Or youths digging into marble
Blown about by gusts of wind that wildly blow

32. That was an era that saw me carried
By a she-camel, striding surefooted and strong in her prime, aglow

33. Her face veiled, shrouded completely
Her plaits parted, the locks falling to and fro

34. Smooth, supple were her limbs
Gentle her gait, graceful and pleasing to behold

35. As if she were a fortress, her heart a den
Where hearts are kept safe from every foe

36. She rested on soft, fragrant sand
As if she were an old, revered sheikh resting close

37. In the morning after a night of tranquility
Molting feathers dropped away with her shake and throw

38. She spied a fox from afar
With fluffy cubs playing to and fro close by

39. She shook her feathers and shuddered in agitation
Preparing to rise, the threat near and danger drawing nigh

40. She crept toward it with bubbly intensity
Charging and flapping vigorously to the foe

41. It was startled and terrified by her approach
And reacted like one severity has melted and laid low

42. She overtook and pinned it down
The prey captured and suffering blows

43. She pummeled and thrashed it about
Its cheeks thumped by her fierce, unbridled blows

44. It struggled helplessly as her claws gashed its flesh
No respite, its throat slashed and torn open by the deadly foe