1. The wellspring of mankind's water sparkled softly,
So I drank from its pages in my drinking-trough

2. Gleaming modestly, its face dewy with shyness
You’d see it amid embroidered cloths and gold-plated wares

3. The swords were envious and very eager for it
A teardrop trembled over it but did not spill

4. I camped near it between a lofty mountain
It reached the summits and between a meadow

5. The fires of the villages blaze for it, as though
However long a guest lived, the tongue of the Arab was eloquent

6. A red mountain disputed the winds her cloak
Bending over and crowding the sky with her shoulder

7. She struck a firmament of smoke above her
In which no shining star was visible

8. And breathed out with every spark’s breath
The south wind kept watch for her

9. She was set ablaze and turned to ashes, as though
To still the evil of her burning sparks, she did not ignite

10. She smolders behind her ashes, as though
A blond disporting herself in a bleached thicket

11. And the night has turned away, shrinking its chill
Relentlessly, dragging its hem into the sunset

12. As though the Pleiades' star in the dark before dawn
Were a hand wiping cloaks of gray hair