1. Thirsting for your eyes, O Ghaida my desert,
The cloud has died, so all my meadows died.

2. The sun of life unsheathed its claws, leaving
No provisions on my she-camel, no water.

3. I walk, fever in the sand, the road a withered
Hand, stumbling, bound, swooning away.

4. I walk, the blaze of noon draining my lungs—
The breath of life, wasted by disease.

5. I walk, the heat of thirst lurking on my lips,
Sipping their moisture, numbing all my limbs.

6. Has the drought of sorrow dried up my pastures?
Have their fields vanished? Their lights dimmed?

7. Or has my patience tired of accompanying me?
Who now can befriend my thorns and gravel?

8. O fertile spirit, my soul parched with thirst,
My mountains of patience melted in fires of misery.

9. Think not the blush on my cheeks comes from plenty.
The fire feeds on my torment, devouring my innards.

10. Autumn took my verdure, the hot wind my blood,
The wind of care clouded the calm of my climes.

11. I can barely recall my complexion, or the chart
Of my face. I’m forgetting my titles, my name.

12. I’ve become a dove that lost her flock, now prey
Between two deaths—the hunter’s and exhaustion.

13. My heart a lark brought down by destiny’s shot,
My wings captive to two winds, tempest and defeat.

14. My veins singed dry, roots sprouting, fingers twitching,
My desert stretches aching from the sultry heat.

15. Diagnose me—I feel death whispering to me,
Plotted between terrors and enticements.

16. Sprinkle my dust, perhaps when desire touches me
Some feeling and passions may bloom from my ruins.

17. When your rain moistens my memory, make
My letters grow, bring some splinters back to life.

18. Give me my raiment back, make my leaves burgeon,
Free me from the darkness’ jails, my glimmers.

19. Remind me of my murmur—it forgot its murmuring
Lost on the toilsome road in my scattered pages.

20. Come, blow in me the embers’ words, ignite,
And kindle flames in the silence’ ashes.

21. Gather me in, collect my fragments, for the
Wind has scattered my belongings far and wide!