1. My two friends, stop for a while and look
Towards Yabrin, is it lightning or fire you see?

2. And pitch my tent near the ruins, for they
Were the first ruins where I came to know love.

3. If it is lightning, it is in a pregnant cloud
Leaving behind water in plenty, not a little.

4. It moves the forelocks of the clouds as though
It were driving smooth-sided horses at speed.

5. And if it is fire, it is a fire where
The wind fans it and makes it blaze and roar

6. Umm Ali lit it greedily so it would give
Light to riders seeking their way back.

7. When you raise discerning eyes you will know
That death has torn us with many a rent.

8. They fear the lashes of the whips as though
They feared arrows shot and coming straight.

9. And after you cut us off from Tanufa,
The land whose limbs were not severed,

10. The hyenas prowl it when it is empty
And bare, and the passionate man forgets passion.

11. When the night changes the day and darkens
We shoot at it until we make a hole in it.