1. Behold, when ‘Arsi turns away her mount,
She blames us though blameless are we;

2. “I see,” she says, “you have squandered your wealth,
And I think were you to see it, ashamed you would be.

3. The creditors deny us access to loans—
Those who sell on credit seek what we owe;

4. The slaves say, as I rise to depart,
‘Do not abandon us here lest we burn!’”

5. Gloomy, I entered a wolf-lair by night.
Then I glimpsed the mantles of Salma’s clan.

6. I looked and saw my family on Sa’if,
Migrating. I glimpsed a lone fire in the distance.

7. Upon it a forlorn gazelle like a mother gazelle
Grazing by herself lost from the herd.

8. She offers her smooth neck to any feared sound—
If she but hears the complaint of a dove.

9. Behold the lightning which did not go out
When the gale shook it and it flashed time and again.

10. So it shed its lamps in the darkening night,
Its edges seeming to be cressets.

11. As if, when it lightened, its veil lifted displayed
An adorable one who a secret would guard.

12. The saplings of date palms it made stand straight,
And generous palm trees it violently stripped.

13. Blood-red streaks mar the smooth dunes,
Covering shrinking cowerers.

14. So at mid-day the two valleys’ cleft
Flashes with glittering pools of running water,

15. Like the torrent of melted lead
Pouring water as in ceaseless rain,

16. Or a cloud whose sides took in water
Answered by the braying roar of camels,

17. I startled its black birds
Distributing calls in various notes,

18. Made angry by the vieing of voices
Whenever the red blaze burst out from it,

19. When the north wind tugged it toward me,
It turned back after nearing me, then disappeared,

20. As broth boiled before the kindling
In the pot of its cook, who then departed.

21. The highroad makes travel hard for caravans
When its glowing heat reaches them.

22. It ebbs as if it were the fading torrent bed
Filled with the rich alluvia of the floodwater.

23. The she-camel of Tami!, when she kneels down,
Adorning the litter as the trappings sway.

24. I found she had lost the use of all four legs—
She could only walk on three, disabled.

25. To me came the best of men. He swore
He would take 10 percent of her price in brokers fee.

26. Freed from boyish folly by one hardened drinker,
Were anything there to make us fly, we’d fly away!

27. When our ugly business became clear to him
And he knew we were saddling up to go,

28. He set himself to complete his promise—
And we wait to see what the result will be!