1. He turned away from the ruins when they despaired
Of eloquence confusing speech or emitting a sound

2. And the pungent sobs were not prolonged
For fear his maladies would subside

3. But the shrewd one does not waver, struck dumb
Except when excess grief makes him act ignorantly

4. God does not forbid well-worn paths
Watering them, shedding smooth light

5. Acacias, or sweetness, or narcissi
Whose fragrance when exhaled

6. Brings life to those barrens
The lights nurture them, saturating the soil

7. Every gloomy shadow is gloomy
When lightning flashes in it, it shines

8. Unless the wing of darkness spreads arrogantly
So we have reveled in the ruins, keeping watch

9. Days when gazelles sought company
And fate reaps ease and hardship

10. I am the son of the noblest abode and origin
And the most fragrant land and plantation

11. The heir of enduring glory, proportionate
The seller of honor and old awe-inspiring glory

12. Above any brilliant explainer of mysteries
I have attained the glory he established

13. So you who cast vile aspersions on me
The dawn sun is too magnificent to be extinguished

14. O Jacob, you have met a knight, an expert rider
Whose battle enhances his zeal

15. Smooth waves recoil from him
When his spear bristles

16. He turns the flint in his bow drill
Stopping the thousands when they mill about

17. A rock against the lions where they nested
Is that him or the horn of a snorting young buck

18. With no saddle marks on his back or chest strap scars
A prey that disdains to have his head bent back

19. Going mad if you provoke him arrogantly
He charges the stallions, a goring black torrent

20. When the young camel senses him, he is terrified
He butted the roan with his mouth till it bled

21. Is that him or a ram of Nita’ leading the flock
Making the rams yield, bending their heads

22. As if they collide with him like a firm mountain
The vintners despaired of fermenting it

23. Until you see it with the dregs, filtered
Intoxicated, never ceasing to drink from cups

24. Is that him or a long-bodied serpent in a pit
That twists to meet him until it recoils

25. In the belly of a valley, alone, desolate
His valley bore no dew or verdure

26. No plants for his dens except those dried up
When he suspiciously creeps into old age

27. Creeping doubts of anxiety when he tingles
He is quick to drive away the whistling arrow

28. Before it hopes for innocence or despairs
Or pays heed to the lurking girls

29. But a firm poet of enduring valor
A deadly thrower of examples and proverbs

30. Who hurls them continuously so they strike
Piercing the graves, sprinkling them

31. Until they meet the bent old man
And the despicable aged one, sneezing

32. Not blessed is the couple, rather the opposite
O son of the killer, no honorable one

33. And son of one from whom no chaste one sought
More deadly to adultery and more creeping

34. Watered with water till her branch was supple
She sells her profits and earnings

35. The same if she refuses or debases herself
Then she stored up her vulgar earnings

36. Hoarding from it the coveted, fleeting
To entice the needy buyer, penniless

37. When her back hunches and bends
And the fornicators do not see any flaw in her

38. Just so does the vile pimp receive
Taking from their slick talk to meet his needs

39. The coal bins are emptied when night falls
His vast scoop gorges, made ritually unclean

40. Wider than the neck of a flask and smoother
It swallows what the whale of Jonah swallowed

41. If a blind arrow misses and barely grazes him
Where can it turn aside, not penetrating?

42. His boyishness could almost make you forget yourself
When sleep overtakes the sleepy eyes

43. His body sprawls in the darkness of night, whispering
As if insomnia has afflicted him

44. Until he meets some miserable, unfortunate one
A drunk in the passing night or a guard

45. If they spread for him the starred leather
Then his imagination would stir up fantasies for him

46. Meeting your eyes, gloomy and unlucky
It would make you completely blind

47. Seeing the day as gloomy darkness
And it would leave your daughter misery upon misery

48. When will you meet the shameless monk
Seizing him with the grasp of a skilled rogue

49. Until when he was hot and flushed
And his prayers and rituals were disrupted

50. Like the neck of a stud when it neighs
And you were pleased with his looks and touch

51. You returned him in your wombs bent over
If his Shaykh saw him, he would not frown

52. He would say: blessed is the coital one, rammer
Blessed are you both, copulators

53. And multiply, get married
Besides you she dresses him in a striped cloak

54. The council argues legal cases in it
What a radiant and solar son

55. If you sought help in meanings from the senile
Or shouted for words from the deaf

56. That they may screech at you: I am confounded!