1. How strange! I did not find strange what, had you seen
Below it, you would have found strange.

2. For the words of Safiyya - why be shy
When you have turned from me and departed?

3. Weeping, I asked: "What makes you
Weep?" Her slave-girl said: "She did nothing."

4. And she turned her face in disdain, and said,
When she saw me: "You did that yourself."

5. When you preferred the love of another to me
And forgot our friendship and grew weary.

6. You said to me words of jest to test me
With a fickle tongue when you swore oaths.

7. "Consort with me, and I will inform you." But from my ill fortune
And misery you consorted, then informed.

8. So we found you, when we were informed, listless,
No longer as you used to say.

9. And you pretended with me to cut my ties
After you were a shelter to which I was joined.

10. Remember then the pact in al-Muhassab, and the love
That was between us, which you then betrayed.

11. By my life! What will be the first of what you
Swore to me, O cousin, then betrayed?

12. It is forbidden you that you should have from me
Naught but that which you already attained.

13. I said: "Gently, pardon, beauty!" But she said:
"No, by my life, even if I saw you dead!"

14. And the she-camels went on, slowly plodding
Toward Khabat, until they reached Khabat.

15. They halted, overlooking the lowlands, then she said:
"Visit us not, nor will we visit you ever."