1. The eye of daylight grew weary and cast
Its braids over the slumbering meadows.

2. The bat slipped out, whispering in the gloom,
While beasts prowled the riverbanks.

3. An owl shrieked from the acacia tree
At the snarling of some beast in the dark.

4. Between bouts, the sullen hound would bay
And a jackal would howl back from the field.

5. Alone I walked, head bowed, weeping,
My thoughts scattered, lost in sorrow.

6. Sadly I drifted in the dark, as though
Heading into the vague horizon of night.

7. The minarets had kindled all their lights
And the distant cemeteries glimmered.

8. Fires of hearths had formed clouds
Over them, smoke rising from their embers.

9. From a hill, the mansions appeared; above,
A dove called to a friend lost in the gloom,

10. Unable to see the constellations or passing flocks.
The biting cold had folded its wings.

11. A plume reached out, searching for bits of down.
By day it found no rest from the bustle within;

12. By night the rabble quieted down.
Feelings of anxiety in the dark, of desolation,

13. Silence of sorrow was all I could see.
Whence comes the throbbing of my heart?

14. What is left to sustain me?
Down in the valley floor, huts stood

15. Of vines, and the watchman stayed up through the night.
He had lit fires in them to warm himself.

16. Flames leapt up, blazing in the huts.
He strummed his flute as the night listened

17. And dreamed to the strains as the night grew merry.
I saw the plain in silent gloom,

18. Gloom hanging over the night and the teeming world.
Whence comes the throbbing of my heart?

19. What is left to sustain me?