1. A breeze from the fragrant abode greeted me,
Bringing a gentle wind that soothes the heart of its sorrows.

2. Yet its soil was not sweetened by any delicate garden,
So its downpour raged, arousing tumult and passions.

3. But this fragrance made the valleys delightful,
Where the rabab trails its skirt at times.

4. The frontiers of the sanctuary were not my homeland,
Nor were the horsemen of Najd my neighbors.

5. So passionate love for Tâ’iya clung to me
Until through it I gained family and home.

6. Beautiful Najlâ’, if she looked, would say,
“O son of Dhi’l-Burdain, your eyes are quiet pools.”

7. She walks slowly. If the ground slept and she tread on it,
The peach trees would not awaken.

8. On rutting camels, their young ones unsteady,
Lofty, they carried branches over the sand dunes.

9. Fearing the evil of some clans, I was wary of them,
Not mentioning the past, so I would not yearn for the bygone days.

10. Do you see, O Hudhaifa, the ‘Is caravan passing
Or is it not? My eyes have glimpsed ghostly forms.

11. In them is my heart, and at the curved road is my body.
Have mercy on hearts when they part from bodies!

12. He bade me farewell and wept until my camels wept,
Gently, Hudhaifa! You have made my eyelids run.

13. Neither you nor highland living delight us now after them.
The sanctuary no longer has the life it used to have.