1. The promise of every gentle gazelle is but a mirage's glimmer.
You promised, O oft returning friend, but gained naught from it, not even an echo.

2. Rather, I denied you, though I granted you unease, when the moment was ripe for deception and piercing cold.
She left, and her encampment was replaced after her by a na'im ostrich or a raven's croak.

3. After her departure and separation I was left with the breeze of a howdah and the scraping of stirrups.
Sadness steals through me in the desolate wilderness, its paths obscured to friends.

4. It seeks the home's proximity after its remoteness, but alas the seekers are exhausted.
Where is the home when its people are so far removed, after intimacy and the lengthening of eras?

5. O rider of the camel litter, beneath you are honey bees, builders of bellies, wolves.
The sword of resolve has been drawn, its edge in the far goal has no bound.

6. When you reach the palm trees, convey my greetings to the people of the palms, and describe my condition to them.
For there the shade of the litter awaits me, its hospitality, and the dwellings of loved ones.

7. The broad valleys slake thirst, the whinny of hobbled mares, the expanse of open space.
The horses prance in the meadow, knees exposed, kinsmen racing.

8. This is what you know, a formidable trust that duty to progeny demands you keep.
If you do not uphold the covenants of allegiance with them

9. Then where are the covenants of the Bedouins?
For trustworthiness in these times and its people

10. Is of the noblest tools and lineages.