1. A heart, as separation willed, is pained
And a passion stirred by cooing doves deceived

2. A lover whose heart was played with by love
To God a youth enamored with folly cleaved

3. Looking back to home, such is the way of love
When it grows old, it acts as it’s bereaved

4. How often I stood at the meadows questioning
It’s misguidance if the fourth would respond to the call

5. Oh home between Al-Udhayb and La’la’
I long for it, Al-Udhayb and La’la’ were quenched

6. I love your meadows though time impedes me
From them, so tears of yearning pour forth unleashed

7. And longing surges when dusk settles in
A lightning over Najd’s ridges unleashed

8. It tells of his camel’s desire in travel
My fiery yearning, with hawâdij raised

9. And its heartbeat, my own heart’s flutter
Whenever saddened by our parting, distressed

10. So water is what my tears have poured forth
And fire is what has filled up my ribs’ crest

11. A little gazelle I cry over, her smile blossoms
So shyly the sparkling lightnings ceased

12. Her black tresses cascade down her figure
Smooth and the best adornment for hair released

13. I entrusted her to my heart the morrow we parted
When separation took her and bid farewell they did

14. Oh how much anguish after her trace remains
Eyes shedding tears over our divide

15. And how much I cried in desolate dwellings
When their dweller left and the dwellings

16. A bewildered lover, after distance grew far
Crying over meadows that do not cease

17. Casting his gaze unto the hills, as though
In every hill arose his loved one’s place

18. Spending the night bereft of heart, blaming
What stripped him, sleepless, cannot find peace

19. Forsaking tranquility in beds, after
They became as if scorpions unleashed their sting

20. Inhaling the souls of north winds, when they blow
The fervor of gusts, with dispersion increased

21. After my heart had grown accustomed to
Steadfast sorrow, unwavering and not weak

22. Does it satisfy itself with phantasm, when she
Departed, while union with her did not suffice?

23. That was so, while youth unto passion cleaved
Enamored with singing girls, interceded

24. Today gray hair has changed it with its tyranny
So it no longer hopes for her phantom or dreams

25. We blamed our loved ones, and lasting blame remained
Patience failed, yearning kept demanding appeased

26. Will our home return to reunite us, I wonder
With a smile stolen by a finger on lips traced?

27. I see the smile with front teeth, even if
Contentment accepts it does not benefit

28. Or for one ill, his malady aggravated,
Through your smile, is there cure or illness ceased?

29. Alas, naught remains but tears
Watering your dwellings, and years that knock

30. And ululations meet the soil in vigils
Making the pebbles darker, and head-wraps released

31. The beautiful one went, and it disintegrated
Though it clung together strongly, now it is torn

32. Mirage deceived it, with its shuddering
So it fell in it, exhausted and stumbling weak

33. It walked thirstily, just as it had come to it
The path led it while no water could make it speak

34. What did it obtain when mirage deceived it?
There, the still water it hoped for was deceased

35. Racing in the rough desert, as if
The four winds compete in racing with it vying

36. So they brought themselves near, nay made near
A home whose dwellers were not present, distanced

37. And came upon loved ones I kept true to
My pledges, while theirs to mine were breached

38. If roses missed their steeds, after they
Were gone, here my tears for them are released