1. Beside the tent I saw a maiden who then left me,
She has a smooth cheek adorned with moles,

2. And a sweet mouth as if its vegetation
Were nourished by spring rains in fertile soil.

3. I looked at her from Mina with desire
My looks would have been indecent, were it not for my self-restraint.

4. I said, “Is it the sun or lamps from the vale of Bai’a
That seemed to rise to you from below the tent, or are you dreaming?”

5. She was a fawn, yellow is her veil,
And in the headcloth were snaky curls.

6. She is of a far lineage—of Nawfal
Or a servant of Hashim—never of Abd Shams.

7. The day I met her she had stretched over her
A camel-litter, while slave girls walked beside.

8. I could not get near her, though at evening we found
Her caravan halting, and the litters being lowered.

9. Litters whose carriers at dawn never struck the camels
With their staffs, and a face the winds never blew on.

10. A lovely gazelle you would see among them
A morning whose soft hands the zephyrs were fondling.

11. When she called her companions they pressed about her,
Swaying as she swayed, or following where she led.

12. They sought the brethren of the east wind until when
They had found his brethren their veils slipped from them.

13. I reminded her of a chronic malady
That breaks afresh when the censors are harsh.

14. “Your nearness profits me naught, and your distance
Is a piercing inner pain, O maiden of Hind!”

15. If the daughter of Kaddar has troubled my life
And if she is absent my heart is desolate, wandering.

16. And she claimed that what she found in me
Would remain fixed in my heart, ever present.