1. Time passed in torrents, yet still flows headstrong,
And the meadows by An'am were swept along.

2. Like palm trees in Iraq when the flood sweeps by,
Sent rushing on from Euphrates they fly.

3. My life, if a lover should chance to espy
You, our virtues obscured, in disarray,

4. With soft sliding shapes and an undulant sway
Beneath sheets that reveal them in part and hide;

5. If he saw you at dawn rise and slip aside
The robes from your beauties, their trace to efface;

6. If he saw the black camels Um 'Amr made graze
Each night, and their streaming dark waters, muddy and thick.

7. They drank of the sea and the salt made them sick,
Then sprinkled the Abyssinians passing in train,

8. On their necks where the plaits fell in circles again.
When you turned to depart the wind rose to restrain,

9. Then died and you journeyed on once again
Your light, when revealed, shone clear of its veil

10. Like a taper of the Jews when the night it assail.
As the lamp brought the Persians their affairs to detail

11. When all were asleep till the cocks began wail.
I lay awake thinking of you the night long

12. Like cauldrons that seethe with a bubbling throng.
The maidens of Nedjd prepare you your food

13. While Yaman's above seas boiling have stood.
Some rising aloft while some low skim the flood,

14. Like the bump on a nose or the thickness of blood.
Your herd climbs the Pleiades, troop upon troop,

15. While others slide low by the Dragon's thick group,
Your beasts in the darkness like vessels agrope

16. Plunging under to drink with a glug and a grope.
For every wadi in Tihama, though long,

17. When the rain clouds are severed, your might is too strong.
As if Misma's camel with Judam's contend,

18. The victor's each bump shall the bruising amend.
That, Um 'Amr, was your drink offering, free,

19. And my gift was as great for such generosity.
Like Durra of Kais when sad Mourners depart

20. She shows her bright cheeks though her tears swell her heart.
A broker displays her, his profit to start,

21. So men can possess her, his purse to enlarge.
To her came a flood, then another flood's charge,

22. Like a wild ass escaping when hunters converge.
So she came, as you wish, from Latim's expanse,

23. While above her Euphrates still rises and dance.
After weariness takes her, as if to the glance

24. She were hidden, of vessels most precious the prize.
At night in the courtyard erect as she stands,

25. Like a captive of battle, selected for size.
Oils poured over till her head seems to rise

26. Like vapor o'er kindling aloes set alight.
As if clothed by Latiim in robes fringed with dyes,

27. Whose slits show her legs with a glimmering light.
That day when I found her, great Kais's treasure,

28. She glittered, bedecked in two mantles' rich measure.
Below, her legs showed where the robes' greater leisure

29. Allowed them, bare, slowly to sway into sight.
Though you spurn me and take for your love at your pleasure

30. Khalil or Salih or Samij to requite,
I've borne this with patience since Ibn 'Anbas fled

31. And torrents rushed on me, while to torrents he sped.
Let me be thought patient, or inform talebearers,

32. For enemies after disaster bring cheers.
High you stand above loss, for you took a man dear,

33. While my soul hugs all dear ones with gripping arrears.
Both arms he flung wide, Khuljam wandered, distraught,

34. His land lost to him, all his pride brought to naught.
He reddened his sword with the blood of the brave