1. Did you not see him sitting on the ruined abode
Whose every desolate place the winds have smoothed?

2. And the dusty soil clings to it accumulated,
The warp of fate and the woof of calamities.

3. Save some adobe bricks spared by the nights
From the darkness of night after it had gloomed,

4. And the companion of the abandoned abode growing
Like the plumage of a young bird from the nest removed.

5. Abodes from Ufayra or Sulayma,
Or Duhma, sister of the clan of Himaas.

6. As if the plaited locks upon it
Were the dark tresses of one sleeping in the tomb.

7. And it smiles with the most wondrous of smiles
As if, within it, is the flashing of a cheek finely groomed,

8. So who is there to convey to Amr a message
When you have reminded him of loves no more boom?

9. Not out of disdain have I deserted you, but
Misfortunes, from which we cannot hide nor flee,

10. Misfortunes which baffle the literati,
And because of which the eloquent are struck dumb.

11. I have protected a people's reputation,
They who inherited the nobility of No'maan.

12. And if the fires of war are kindled,
I do not conceal my fear of war's harms.

13. I will expend the best of what an orator expends
Whenever discourse is silenced by the sword.

14. And I have pierced the wailers with long spears -
With them I pierced the band of Abu Firas.

15. Of the house of Ailan I left none remaining
Save those I left like the cuticles and fluff.

16. And Kaheel said, and the clan of Qu'ain:
"Your tenderness! We are not people deserving of it."

17. So why do the sheep bleat insulting me
While in their bleating is the blood of plants?

18. And they have not protected the reputations
Save to elevate their names alongside Abu Nuwas.