1. O long night, hasten your passing, for nothing lasts but the dawn
The eyes find rest at dawn by closing their lids from all burdens

2. As if darkness was assigned to watch beside every highland and meadow
So dawn, sweep away the night's dust rising

3. And awaken the one wrapped in robes
When the wild beasts call out, he responds, aroused from his lair

4. Not the constant flames of campfires
Nor the howls of hyena packs

5. If Layla passed through the vineyards, she may have halted
Between the slopes of Babylon upon the smooth sands

6. O Salma, fear not that I encroach on the vineyards
Probing the hillsides with my thoroughbred steed

7. Enough sorrow, O Salma, that one gone to the vineyards
While I remain, unable to venture there

8. I sleep but to meet Salma's mother, though perhaps
Dreams cheat me with a fleeting illusion

9. O Salma, I gain nothing if I sell you
For this world, and what trader profits not?

10. Samsam, if you intercede for your mother, you'll find
An advocate in her heart who never refused aid

11. When you are away, none but you is absent
As you care for us each evening and at dawn

12. Is love anything but - had she stripped herself
For your slaughter, Samsam, I'd say "Go on, slay!"

13. To me, you are sweeter than paradise
A paradise whose vines have bloomed between dunes

14. Like one thirsty for water that misfortune made distant
Amidst far sands between barren hills

15. I imagine, if I embrace your cousin Salma
Upon a sandy plain, a place for one to sprawl

16. Turning away, she moves on; approaching,
The gazelle's haunches sway beneath her robes

17. As if my heart is in the claws of a bird
That tears whenever memories of you reemerge

18. Memories of you - since fate has not allowed us to meet
Distract me from the joy of this burdensome life

19. I envy myself for Salma, my cousin
Though every fair maid were to offer herself to me

20. She evades but desire for you defeats all restraint
Erasing the bitterness of one who bears so much woe

21. You are not linked to weakness, O Salma, so delight
In the morn, not in borrowed splendor on loan

22. O Salma, if to you I should return, perhaps
I'll come back my affairs ungladdened by foes

23. Powerless, without cunning stratagems
Save for the grace of the oft-praised and glorified hands

24. Otherwise I am but a stray camel
Tomorrow amidst stones in the barren plains

25. When I die, lament me to your people, and weep
For one like me, an ignoble braggart

26. Of the unfailing horseman, your husband, sing his virtues
Though remote, his lofty merits remain undimmed

27. He strove and his efforts led to great triumphs
Those who excel in glory will prosper

28. Thus he attained what no righteous effort misses
Matching the success of those misfortune evades

29. I fear, Samsam, if I die, rule over
My inheritance and yours will go to one unfit

30. If he knocks your head with his staff in council, and says
"You have erred!" reply "I concede, forgive me!"

31. Your nearest ally is a helpless old woman
Who sighs heavily when you complain of injustice

32. Bereft of any defense but the outpouring of tears
From every duct, without cease or relief

33. When you visit she weeps, and remembers amidst sorrow
One whose virtues surpassed all other men's

34. Whom the earth has concealed, sparing you
Your gracious father, protector of the adorned sanctuary

35. Whether slain by spears or dead, the winds blow dust
Over him from all sides on every sand hill

36. The breeze alternately perfumes him with sweet basil
As hands competing to pour from their vessels

37. Though such fate was granted him, his mother does not chide
The mourned, rising at dawn without joy or rest

38. O Salma, I shrouded my stray camel in its robe
And wrapped my mouth with perfumed cloth

39. Barely stretched between the staves of the bier
Borne by the deeply grieving undertaker's helpers

40. I placed my reddened brow before it, like Hurrah's son
My cheeks thirsty with tears flowing from each duct

41. The wind's moaning echoes in my ears
Like lamenters in an afflicted, grieving throng

42. The warbling birds are silenced, and the barking stilled
As mourning doves coo from every niche

43. When they call loudly, igniting the stones beneath them
Their clamor is like the shouts of quarreling drunks

44. With unsettled crying, as if his rooster's crowing
Were quarreling throngs returning from a feast

45. The wolf takes its prey, the fox its spoils
Beasts of the wilds, from burrows and thickets

46. When they take cover in every crevice in the rocks
He meets them at every den and lookout

47. Accustomed to raids, he moves as if his stride
Spanned the breadth of the abandoned settlements

48. The color of the lone leopard, his head marked
With the smears of sacrificed offerings

49. When filled, he plunges down as if the shadow
Of a departed raincloud on a cleared day

50. If he settles down far from his lair
Motionless in a place he'd never before lain

51. His goal marked between two breastbones, his path rises
Above the ground, climbing over rocks

52. Knocking the heads of the men from the heels of the horses
In valleys amidst the games of the swinging plunge

53. I severed forbidden ties and dispatched dutiful acts
Through the strength of my wrist, forceful and thick

54. Scorned but strong, whose sides quiver when still
Her limbs rigid, her hump firm and hard

55. You see her, her hands clenched into fists
Like the paws of a hyena, hungry and drooling

56. An ugly, scarred vessel that constantly carries a rider
Drifting in the stagnant pool, rippling and defiled

57. When one side passes, the other appears
Like the well-knit form of a devoted monk

58. A beauty that outshines the excellence of any mount
A chest like the breastplate of a armored knight

59. If she moves slowly, she leaves a mark
Like a bracelet on the terrain she ruled

60. With unshod hooves and no rings on fetlocks
Her legs chained, with neither straps nor rings

61. She slept deeply between two hollows in the ground
On yellowed grass that was never plucked

62. She settled there, then tossed and turned
Falling sideways in a heap, wings folded

63. She traveled far from the barren plateau
Taking the smooth route then swerving aside

64. Favoring the left side, learned like the script
Of a transcriber, clear and refined

65. She walked in a herd with remedies secured
By straps, well-tanned and never softened

66. With blindness, so the wild cats while mating
Cling to them two or three nights, mewling piteously

67. In the morning, deprived of water five days
Saddles of sorrow, dust, and patches

68. Calling each other to descend, as if remnants
Of dwellings left in the abandoned settlement

69. Chicks wandering, pecking with their beaks
The shrieking hop of the terrified chick

70. Born dead, then impregnated after dying
Without being bred by a rooster's penetration

71. Celestial, swollen, as if their udders
Were the utters of a marked, scarred ewe

72. They toured the valleys, teats bared
Inflaming the heart with burning thirst

73. Pregnant bellies like the armor of warriors
But their insides the color of dyed wool

74. When she sped up, trotting as if on the edge
Of an unsheathed sword, its sharpened edge exposed

75. She came upon traces amidst the footprints
Of wolves in the soft sands of the flat valley

76. She hurriedly crossed it, then raced on with dawn
And the dawn raiders lighting up the terrain

77. Turning altogether, as the lizard plunging
Headfirst from the wall of Basra turns about

78. She came upon a water-spring amid the traces
Of foxes in the midst of plains and flatlands

79. Circling stealthily before racing forth together
With the dawn that illuminates the battleground