1. The one who told you about Asma's meadows
Of what happened between us the day her camel-litter departed

2. You scolded her for the birds of Saneh though if
Your passion which you love strikes you, avoiding it profits you naught

3. I have considered her circumstances and wanted her
For years but I fear her husband or her shyness

4. For three years but when she trespassed against us
With disdain and her youth turned grey

5. My heart disobeyed me regarding her, truly I am
Attentive to its command though I know not if its seeking profits it

6. So I said to my heart: good for you, it only
Leads you to the new death, her love

7. So the scent of Damascus did not come as a prisoner
It has a goal that guides the generous to reward

8. The juice of the twigs is no deception
Nor vain talk that scalds the drinkers, its flames

9. It befriends travelers at times and brings together
Neighbors and covers them with the security of its calm

10. So it remained among the people until it was distinguished
As Thaqif with the bleating of goats, its tents

11. The sons of the house of Mu'tib circled it
And preventing its sale and seizing it was difficult for them

12. When they saw that she had outwitted them and it was not
Permissible for them to coerce her and overpower her

13. They came to her with a profitable offer which she attempted so she became
On sale having been untied and her drink accessible

14. To the one who inclines to every setting
When the folds of the sun turn yellow, the time of its departure

15. To the one whose hand the buzzards desire, she became
Lofty, beneath the sky her peak

16. Its sentries desire the heights persistently
And swoop down as burning flames on its cliffs

17. When she rises in it, the amount of her departure increases
Like the flow of torrents, the sound of its pouring swelling

18. Some of its sentries shade the fertile land
Nursing the plump-feathered young, necks bent, their collars

19. So when Al-Khalidi saw her like
Pebbles thrown forcefully, dodging on its own, its return

20. He was adamant about her and knew that
Either she or another, the dust is her soil

21. So it was said: "Avoid her, unlawful is the sight of her
Revealing her is manifest, her display and standing tall"

22. But he hung the causes of death and was content
With his ruin if the pulling away of her robes did not fail him

23. He crept up on her between censure and sin
In tattered clothes like the falcon swooping down

24. So when he confronted her with solicitation she withdrew
In stillness, her humiliation and gloom upon her

25. So perfume the morning breeze with parting, and here is
A gray-feathered thing, and it is her gray hair

26. They were not together in a glistening parchment
New, recent, carved by him and shortened

27. With something better than it, if you come by night
And her clothes turn to you

28. She saw me once prostrate from wine so she reproached me
With "Wine is disheveled, unpleasant are its companions"

29. And had she stumbled over me then, I would not have greeted her
With her stumbling nor responded poorly

30. Nor would my dog have startled her to distance her alarm
Even if her dogs had barked me away