1. My heart's enthralled with your kindness though long years have passed
Since tender youth and springtime fled, now autumn rules at last

2. My Laila though she weary me, her whims have run their course,
Renewed our pact, the suitors gone, no more their vain discourse

3. Too grand is she to be addressed if watchmen bar the door
No secrets does she share abroad when master is no more

4. Yet joyful homecoming makes amends when he's returned to her
Don't rank me with some fool self-damned whom wayward passions spur

5. The slanderers' tales have poisoned you, belief in them your bane
They ply you falsehoods, envy's brew, hoping that I'll be slain

6. With Yemen's gifts I came to you when day was almost done
Heading where night winds gently blew from many a rising sun

7. You are no wife of nobility whose name is honor's guide
Though yearnings for you wound my heart and every fiber bide

8. Ask of me what you will of men, for well physicians know
Women's afflictions and their ken of where dark humors flow

9. When youth has gone and riches spent no love will they evince
But treasure's gleam draws all their dream and blinds their worldly sense

10. Leave her be, let sorrow go, drown care in rapturous bliss
As when we coupled in sweet throes and climaxed in a kiss

11. Her tentmate too, when parted from the one her soul held dear
Rose haggard, drawn from severing, nursing rancor and dark fear

12. Yet when her lover was returned she made as if the past
Had been a frightening ugly dream, all joy and comfort cast

13. Many sought her, she declined, disgusted at their nerve
I drove my she-camel to Harith - his name the Giver - serve

14. His fortresses and hills with hope that I might draw more near
And by his grace come to your place, no longer far to veer

15. To you I brought the saddle's corpse, its whitened bones a pall
Its leather hides like shrouds of gauze both wrapping overall

16. I soaked it deeply as if the skins still sap alive enfurled
With myrrh and ambergris distilled, its lather honey-curled

17. Lay it to rest in the courtyard but if it still offend
Then journey onwards without rest, no time more time to spend

18. To you, my lord, I gave my trust, and you accepted it
None else commanded such my lust, all else I tried to quit

19. The clan of Awf returned your love, but one of noble fame
Excelled, unless that stallion drove the ranks would hang their head

20. Always you send him forth in front till all his speed is gone
While you bear bright opposing brunt: their bones you dash upon

21. With flaming deadly iron clad, blades heavy overlay
To smite them down in fury mad till frightened of your way

22. You battled Ghassan's tribesmen too - Hinb and the Kass -
Till their dark forms battered hew before you in the press

23. Their iron frames clashed loud on them as when dry stubble shakes
Against the winnowing southern winds amidst the harvest's wakes

24. Your soul you give with peerless zest, and in the fated hour
Will shine with joy and grace so blest, all fretfulness devoured

25. The champion riders of the Aus tribe shimmering armor donned
Though not one family joined as one could match you bond by bond

26. The sky's dome lowered claustrophobic, yet their keenest stroke
Met only with your dazzling mystic riposte and deadly provoke

27. As if a cloud above had burst and lightning smashed them all
Save Shaṭba, her bridle first, and Tammir, lithe and tall

28. Kamiy too escaped the fray, protected well around
For all the blows he bore that day no piercing could be found

29. In every clan your gifts hit home, so wrongs demand redress
None near or distant match your loam, none can your goodness guess

30. Save they your kith and kin of course, of equal noble fame
Not stooping to the common course, but playing honor's game

31. So please don't bar me from reward if I've not lost your grace
No base deceiver I my lord, though estranged from my race