1. A camel left subtle traces,
Keeping us company when no humans did.

2. She moaned as lightning flashed for her
Across the valleys' breadth.

3. So she tossed, restless with yearning,
Oppressed by grievous longing.

4. Poor beast who obeys
Her longing's command to show patience.

5. How often she's eased a goal
That long seemed too hard!

6. And smoothed a path that
Before was rough with hardship.

7. Can the wind convey, from those
My heart loves, any news?

8. Wafting perfumed in its folds
Things gladness would diffuse?

9. As though we'd never shared
A visit, or known joy.

10. And in their absence showed
Our nights a woeful ploy.

11. O square enclosure, where gazelles
Grazed, does it yet endure?

12. A camp I watered with the tears
That rain could not outpour.

13. Scarce did the abandoned camp
Withhold its torrents, in my pain.

14. Its soil was fertile ground that gave
Rich pasture, once again.

15. O playground where union was
Still fresh, still green in hope!

16. How often I plucked from you
A sweet herb, a tender rope!

17. Sometimes ostriches would trail
Their wings across your floor.

18. And Zainab left the scent
Of sweetest perfumes, evermore.

19. Her soft breeze made me drunk
Whene’er it gently blew.

20. By God, how many gazelles I courted
In that place - docile, tame!

21. They’d glance at me, their eyes brimming
With love, without the least shame.

22. A full moon she appeared, so my heart
Melted in her lunar flame,

23. Outshining sun and moon in her brilliance
And radiant acclaim.

24. Never escaping love's madness
Or losing all his wits.

25. But plunging headlong into passion
Beyond what reason permits.

26. And love has left me, after sweet union,
Nothing but long wakeful nights.

27. Faraway land and tombs forbid
My eyes their wonted rites.

28. Banishing them from the familiarity
Of my bed, and causing frights.

29. So I remain a specter, unseen
By those returning to reunite.

30. Who will bring me the union I crave,
Green and fresh again?

31. A garden that flourished for me
In the nearness I knew then.

32. Swaying like the drinker lost
In wine's heady terrain.

33. I'd linger blissful beneath its shade,
Well content to remain.