1. A flock of maidens from 'Uqail heard me
Reciting poetry behind the dwellings of Hayy

2. So the eyeholes of the chambers were blocked
By staves that pierced every heart that had a sheath

3. And they breathed sighs that ignited my fervor
And bled, but no necklace was safe for a singing girl

4. Among them were a Hind and a Hayya, plump
And my soul's demise is for their sake, O Hind!

5. They asked her, "Whence did this young man come
From a valley in Tihama or from Najd?"

6. In his diction is a highborn eloquence
And from his poetry glory drips

7. A girl said, "A Qurayshi youth upon whom
An ambition was cast to revive the frail weakling

8. By his father's life! She is an expert
At the finest camel-borne litters of praise."

9. Of a people whose souls crave calamities
While the delegation wanders lost in their shade

10. Whoever recoils from the terrible disaster
I am, for what has afflicted me, an impenetrable stone

11. I reached my prime, and time kept
Goading me, though it has not pleased me yet