1. Our nights amid the twisting sands have passed,
Days of virtuous deeds, so come back and grace us!

2. With you the world was bright, its bloom a joy;
Such were the days of yore, their bounty peerless.

3. A time of union − its pure bliss untainted
By separation or remoteness hateful;

4. We quaffed deep from revelry’s heady cup,
Not once eschewing worldly joys unheeding,

5. When specters marched beneath night’s murky cloak
And care’s nagging was banished amidst bleeding,

6. Assailed by grief, hard and piercing like arrows,
Prostrate atop a hill of ruby, kneeling,

7. Through the night he alternately woos and wars,
Parrying the ripostes of a darling’s pleading.

8. I recalled my youth’s days, but absent were
All I held dear, and festivities succeeding.

9. My raven hair made every fair one swoon −
Each delicate wrist knew well my pleasing.

10. As we parted, eyes once dancing now downcast,
Unstirred by grief, though frozen and receding.

11. I fled unto solitude, there finding refuge,
At a forbearance outcrop, love’s siege conceding.

12. Passions unceasingly seek to undo me
With promises broken or hopes exceeded,

13. Aiming with eyes that subjugate all hearts
To desire’s edict − the only pleading!

14. When weakness shackles a man’s ambitions,
Its chains are not those which I see as freeing.

15. My will remains resolved to gain yet more
Beyond what any may call succeeding.

16. I journey through lands only to return
To home and hearth, at peace and resting easy,

17. There where my she-camels’ knees at last fold
And my supplies and gear find their unloading.

18. The clans of my uncle hastened to my aid
Though fate itself may vacillate unheeding.

19. They turned back every threat to darker days
Sheltering each refugee and hunted pleading.

20. When they attend, rains fall, and from their faces
Even arid wastes drink deep beyond their needing.

21. The world regained its best days known before
As favoring winds blew, inertia receding.

22. What their nature is − it never changes:
To smite a foe or help a hapless breathing.

23. Their solely glory is in noble deeds
Of forebears long gone, their memory leading.

24. Open-handed they, who never close their palms
To curb each night’s rumbling, drumming, thundering.

25. Their holds are the peaks of Qanah; treasures gleaming:
A blaze of swords and mail like lightning streaking.

26. When death’s darkness descends, gone in a flash,
As they face the darkest night, black cloaks streaming.

27. They doused the fires lit by every foe
Kindling in war a blaze forever seething.

28. With fiery sparks, as if erupting peaks
Stoked by fuel in plenty, smoke clouds steaming,

29. When war’s firmament roils, you may behold
Among the dusty whirls, stars brightly beaming −

30. Of the foemen naught remains but fugitives
Scattered far, or cowering, cringing, fleeing.

31. The clash of steel shreds them − some prisoners chained,
Some stripped of all, of weapons and clothing.

32. When fate has dealt its blows, their bounty calms me,
My guide through the blind turns of its careening.

33. Unceasing gifts of bounty they proffer,
Caravans of wealth succeeding unending.