1. Behold the ruins, circles of old foundations
Watered by the first rains of pouring clouds

2. And every downpour lavishes upon their remnants
Throngs of pounding, rumbling showers

3. Abodes of loved ones and blessed resting place
And gathering of boon companions and assembly of night chatters

4. I confined the twisting sands therein
With tent pegs and ropes, narrowing the gazes

5. Those who yearn when the companion is mentioned
Ask the setting sun about the tears between the eyelids

6. As if the celestial nymphs had guaranteed them
Imminent reunion or the loosening of wrist shackles

7. So one calls out longingly between the dwellings
While another complains within them, impeded by remnants

8. When the people pass around cups of their love for it
They quenched it with the first drops of their tears

9. It was spared the harm of travel, restored
In conscience, like a treasured keepsake

10. Neglected, the lizards hastened to it, blessing
Crawling over pebbles, scraping with their claws

11. Settlements in the hollows of the desert transformed
Into morsels for the voracious, destroying hawks

12. By Allah, how many treasures within the ruins
Gnawed by the gaping mouths of annihilation

13. My friend, today let us take a different route
That we may relive the days of gathering within the walls

14. For it contains does, gentle, wandering
Shy before the strutting, prancing does

15. Do not deny that I craved its earth’s lightning flash
With passion for those radiant cheeks

16. When the breeze blows over its land with the scent of youth
We open our nostrils to its wafting fragrances

17. Dragging its tails over the meadows
Leaving its hot sighs within the merchant’s wares

18. And nights of union wherein its first hours
Were not disturbed by its last

19. Nights wherein I did not charge my eyes to guard
The shining, glittering stars

20. Afterward I returned in search of the nymphs
Bound by the memory of the deep, dark nights

21. And days of bliss, whenever their memory stirs
I find in my heart burning agony

22. O days devoid of the pact of stone
You quenched me with pouring tears

23. Tears, that when rain is mute, pour down
In clouds like scattered pearls

24. O dwelling place of loved ones, I fear to see
Your era forgetful, unremembering of the pact

25. I swore by the disheveled camel saddle bags
As if the shadow of a bird covers each ruin

26. By the lean hyenas, breeding creatures
Racing the sighs of gentle breezes

27. By the predators, like towering mountains, excellent indeed
The choicest of the meadows quarreling over the cool ponds

28. By the stance of outstretched, waving forearms
Bold against the war of biting indented swords

29. That even if versifying was innate in others
Of the nomads and settled peoples composing verse

30. I would silence the eloquent among them
With compositions that break the backs of the strong

31. For people are but as seas, some
Barren, and some a source of gems