1. His heart awoke, and the useless part of his day grew short,
And he denied it because of what its situation had brought on him.

2. He would blame and recognize the demeanor and my manner,
And deny the bending of the head and the hoariness that encompassed it.

3. And I was as they knew, and time was good,
As the chest of a Yemeni its scabbards had purified.

4. And I became one who had chastised ignorance and its people,
As the horses of youth grew up and their dams carried them.

5. There are few who restrain me, whoever comes to me deliberately,
Whether they were with me or their qualities opposed me.

6. Except that I may not say to one who turns away,
If he chooses the rope’s edge, “Are you its connector?”

7. Look, my friend - do you see any dirty women
Who have borne the likes of sheep and their pregnant ones?

8. Dirty women who glisten in autumn and fatten themselves,
And their spirits diminish that they are led by bridles.

9. Following a living being who does not see a star rising
From the night, unless it is passing and its stages disappear.

10. They drank from the wine-skin of darting gazelles a drink,
And the most delicious to it was its mixture they kept pace with.

11. So when the darkness appeared and they turned away from it,
Phantoms in the sand, their spears glisten.

12. And they said, “Is not the coolness the first drinking place,
Yes, neighbors, if its depths were remedies.”

13. They packed up and hastened every impending one
With his goods, no longer caring if his strap would tear.

14. They hurried the ignorant before daybreak, and on top of him
Were assemblies of the drowned, which their bucket could not scoop up.

15. Whenever the wind came to him from the direction of a side,
To a side, it carried the dust, interfering with it.

16. They threw a rock at whoever of them angered them
And blamed the hurler and its sender.