1. Do you know in the eastern desert a youthful, playful abode,
Whose people I show to my friend though he sees

2. Veiled women in the quarters as if their houses
Were filled with the murmur of doves?

3. Nothing to be seen but a dripping forehead
Or rouged fingers here and there.

4. We were joyous and could barely leave in the evening
When they said, No more loitering; be off!

5. As if we left on swaying camels that vie
With the twisted trees in loftiness,

6. Brought to us by the chiefs of the land who pasture it
And seek hospitality even from a stranger till we were intimate.

7. They lead the she-camels in the night rain to the meadow,
And water oozes into it, greening the dry land.

8. At Wusmiyyah, though its meadows resemble
Broidered coat of mail or a bejeweled mantle,

9. We stayed till the dew had soaked in
And nothing was seen but what cleaved hill and plain,

10. And the heat of summer had withered
Whatever was left of herbage but colocynth and sorrel

11. While we sought shade from the rays with strips
Of cloudless sky, wrapped around us.

12. When she wanted something he disliked
He forced her until she was submissive.

13. Like the leader of a mixed band whose perverseness
Increased her reluctance until she was angry.

14. Suns, when he visited them, spread out for him
The train of their robes while he smiled and she almost loved him.

15. Unaware, he lagged behind while she sped ahead,
And when he saw her determination, he reproached her.

16. A she-camel aroused when walking, confusing tracks
When he drew near, stretching the earth behind her.

17. At nightfall we brought her to soft dunes, a haunt
Of wild cows, and left her alone.

18. You'd think the night-lamp in it a lighthouse
That shines when darkness falls in the west.

19. We met a starved dog who, famished,
Had grown thin until he was just skin and bones.

20. Hunting for young that were his get
He found since they were conceived only riffraff.

21. We held back until she waded in
And started to kneel, leaning on one foreleg.

22. Against his bow of knotted cords which seemed
To answer when drawn - but it hit nothing.

23. He followed her with eyes whose lids
Were darkened by her dusty trail.

24. My heart quivered with longing
To tear apart the timid soul and make it quake.

25. Her white legs I thought were cast idols
When the cover of fog was lifted from them.

26. I saw their ornaments on the cheeks of a fawn
Delighting the eye and heart.

27. She said, Your aloofness is a rebuke.
Have you decided to shun me and keep apart?

28. I said, No, but a certain man has beguiled me,
One who considers praise unearned gain.

29. He sees wealth does not last for its defender
And wealth is only to be gotten and lost.

30. His father the Commander of the Faithful, his mother
A Kindeh, the best of the tribe of Hajr ibn Amr.

31. He was raised by Abu 'l-Aswad and Amr who came together
So honor one as uncle, the other as father.

32. Two nobles from different clans who vied
To raise a precious scion and so engendered him.

33. I give him unequaled praise that will not
Be matched by another though he live in the west.

34. Rhymes that, were they made of brashness, would not sell
And would meet with success only if perfectly wrought.

35. The praise of a man who, if he wins merit, will repay it,
Not brooding over what escaped him.