1. Alas! I wonder, will I see Umm Salim’s abode,
In the valley between al-Udhayb and Bariq?

2. I will journey to her, while passion spurs me on,
With the red-dyed forelocks and the quick-pacèd mounts.

3. My companion is a man of ‘Adnan’s secret, Majid,
Who illuminates the horizons and all creation.

4. Of weak constitution, not inclined to harm others,
Nor does his humble abode crowd his guest.

5. When the riders spur on their camels at sunrise
And the masters lead their steeds ahead in the race

6. He is like Abs’ brother on the sand dunes,
Lofty upon his she-camel descending from Dhu Arrakah.

7. He has no fault but that his mount upon the dunes
Despairs of outpacing the others in the valley.

8. And that his eyesight on the night journey was dim,
As the dark night obscures all vision.

9. And that I bear the blame for his youth,
Though he is no burden, and I am no harsh taskmaster.

10. And I know that his reproach comes from care for me;
It is not just to reprimand a friend for loving.

11. Do you not see that my eyes discern no evil in the beloved,
A vision that comes to me late in the blackest night?

12. A Qaysiyyah whose name does not shame her father,
Nor is her face the plunder of spying eyes.

13. I clung to her as a child, and fate is with us
Whose hands are generous, unobstructed.

14. So my love for her kept growing through my youth
And into old age when I enter the farewell.

15. When we come together, my cloak clings to her cloak,
And my neckband whispers with her neckband.

16. Noblest manners a man shows are perfect discretion
When he is private with the one he loves.

17. Shall I listen to the slanderer while she and I
Share talk that flows like matched pearls?

18. If her peers could, they would hide me away from her
For a passion kept secret between the dunes and ravines.

19. So the fault-finder’s lies bring me no shame;
My love for her is true, no one else’s.