1. A mother donkey and her filly decorate themselves,
With hoofs that injure those who wish them good.

2. A she-ass neither ridden at the front or back,
Nor worked at the olive press with the cattle.

3. Always tightening her belt against hardship,
Tough, keeping her legs folded beneath her.

4. Her fetlocks are interwoven on every toe,
With plaits running down both legs from each.

5. When her anklets appear it's as though they were
A washed stream bed smoothed by the running brook.

6. Years passed over her, mocking,
Then came one that revived men and was unique.

7. Old but lasting, hardy,
With a guardian watching over her, his advice intent.

8. When the noble ladies came, swords flashing,
Uncontrolled, with no chief to guide them.

9. She brought forth, following religious law,
Hands all smeared from the birthing fluid.

10. Her teats continued dripping milk, until
She seemed a hired hand whose absence they resented.

11. Then she brought one whose crossing she announced by her trot,
And he lived until it was said he would never die.

12. She pampered him until he rounded out, as though
He was a foal from Turkey's horses stabled on the hill.

13. When she had trained him and taught him manners, she sang,
"All things perish, but Allah does not."

14. She tasted him gently beneath the coverings, and it delighted her
To hear his soft groans, though she was fully sated.

15. If he inclined away, toward Iraq, she turned his head
Toward her chest, pulling the reins against his neck.

16. He would lean toward his wild side, and she
Inclined him to her gentle, human, domesticated nature.

17. When night revealed itself to them and she saw
The distant stars shining in night's dome,

18. She was told, "Come, rouse yourself and hurry!
Rival the moaning doves before the other hens respond!"

19. She snapped her yellow plaits against his flank
Answering his call, enticing and inviting him.

20. She led him on an unlucky, cold night
To meet her lover Abu Khushkhush while the night was cold.

21. He came to her and she said, "You would trick me
out of my food! There should be distance between us!"

22. When he said "Wait!" she looked at him sadly
With blazing blue eyes untouched by his entreaty.

23. As though the stones of her hooves were the old
rough rock split by the running brooks.

24. When the three month old foal rivaled his mother,
She returned to her stall, moaning for her absent one.

25. She stood for a time in the night, an hour
Gladdened by the glow-worms while the mourners slept.

26. The women of the tribe came crowding round
With the skulls of titanic beasts bared by the elegies.

27. She brought forth one whose roar was like
The rumbling thunder answered by lightning's brilliant veins.