1. When you recalled the past, my eyes overflowed
And longing for you returned, as you knew

2. My heart had awakened, then was stirred within me
Doves cooing in the city fluttered

3. As if the voice arising in its midst
Was a warbling lark indulged in luxury

4. Reminding us of our days in Uwaika
And the slopes of Qusas, as remembrance kindles ardour

5. And white camels that trill as if they were
Maidens of the tribe, intimate and gentle

6. I spend the night as if my eyes were two lotus trees
Drenched with a pouring of night dew

7. I observe a Suhayl star that when it appears
At the end of night begins to blink

8. It shies from the path of stars and turns aside
As the camel turned from the thorns in its saddle

9. Dawn broke on Jarran’s lute, and the sea stretched below
With its rolling dunes like waving spearshafts

10. And he found nothing like the day when cavalry
Pursued us ceaselessly with noonday heat

11. They overtook us when the war-steeds were like
Stallions with braided manes and tossing heads

12. No sooner had the cavalry reached us than the stragglers
Joined battle with us, the last left behind

13. The wide-stepping steed of Hijan was as though
A demon of night bore its rider through the gloom

14. In the camp, the forms of veiled women were like
Wild cows with plaited camel-leather nose ropes

15. Suns of youth and intimacy, their features veiled,
Slain by passion - if only the abode could save them!

16. Their languor seems mingled with torment, and in them
Is a delight that stirs the frozen spirits of the tribe,

17. Abasing the mighty until they seem to be
An oven the baker has despaired of lighting

18. They are no less than the rain-cloud Saabir
Hovering over Najd, its first rain imminent,

19. The onlooker compares them to an egg
Revealed by dawn’s departure on branches of a sidr

20. By a bramble of entwining chainlike stems
Where creepers climb in jointed fronds

21. When they said to us, and the cavalry was still disarrayed,
Their unshod hooves striking sparks from the blackened valley floor,

22. “They are fleeing mares inclined to bolt, as though
Their chests were gripped by the pulling of the halter.”

23. You were praised by some among us and desired,
Though you are a man whom praise elates and thus betrays.

24. Exalted in East and West, your speech
Is lasting eloquence and carefully pronounced.

25. When you do not visit us, resentment often seizes me
And we cannot find one who resents as bitterly.

26. You are inclined by passion and desire astray
Like the roving she-camel seeking a new mate.

27. We meet as if we were booty you had gained
And you disdain a bounty that is pressed on you.

28. So let our trysting-place be the shore between our lands
Where you can hear the cock’s crow at dawn.

29. To find traces of us it will suffice you
Discarded garments and a ruined encampment.

30. The tracks of guided camels above it and to the right
Where pebbles pour down the slope in landslides.

31. Then we vanish, with none aware save those
Who swear and make us swear on every surmise.

32. She who guided us in stealth said, chiding them:
“Blame yourselves for this night journey.”

33. Some of our daughters’ hopes were shattered
By the darkness - if only God will lift the veil!

34. Jarran’s lute is not at fault, nor are we,
But the lute of Jarran we are charged to shun.

35. Had their mother seen us the night of drinking
And the night of the raid as we crept ahead,

36. She would have confiscated my water-skin and said
“This will be found with you and thus reveal the truth.”

37. When night concealed us I stole to her furtively
To climb the hill where the jinn were piping shrill.

38. The lonely hill-side made me slip in fear
And the safer side made me lean down in turn

39. Then they came walking gracefully, pacing themselves,
Taking short steps- some creeping and some crawling.

40. As if the hunter I was following
Bore a spear aloft, striding with upright posture.

41. When they descended to the plain and adopted a strategy -
Such are the wiles of woman, arousing dread -

42. They carried off Jarran’s lute and left it
In the ruins, where jinn began to fiddle.

43. I saw there nothing like the shoulder I saw
Of Khawla, unless a promise made then broken.

44. When we met they said “Tonight he takes liberties -
Let not the intruding guest overstep his bounds!”

45. And said “Enjoy this night of despair,
For tomorrow you will be banished or find the sword.”

46. And took from me each gathered yard of loincloth,
Leaving me the patterned cloak from Nufal.

47. So we remained seated while our hearts were like
A leather tent whose pegs the wind had plucked up.

48. The dew sprinkled down on us for a time
A gentle drizzle coming after midnight ceased.

49. We spent the night as if a perfumed breeze
Had scented us, the wind’s swinging censer,

50. Vying in delight, as if it were
The robes of maidens rain had soaked on a hot day,

51. Delicate, its hems - were an ascetic to hear
Such words as these within, he would tremble in fear.

52. Talk that, were herbs to hear the slightest part,
Would wilt the plants and bring the leaves to grief!

53. It is eternity in life, for those able to attain it,
And death for the owners of gray temples.

54. When they saw dawn usher in its light,
Out crept the jerboas of the valley or they hastened away.

55. They reached the rear of night after the devout man
Had performed the dawn prayer kneeling steadfast.

56. I did not explain before they spoke:
“Would that we were dust, and earth might gape and swallow humankind!”

57. “If we escape from this without their knowledge,
Some good approaches that will then be turned aside.”

58. So in the morning they were like slaughtered beasts
While lances of the foe stood planted by our sides,

59. Bringing their messages - each letter-writer,
Tall staff in hand, or a creeping cripple,

60. A squint-eyed crone they could not subdue,
Her scribbled letter throws clubs and stones.

61. She saw a white page and gathered her skirts
More keen than an Indian blade and smoother.

62. Neither white nor tawny falcon stoops like her,
Her intellectual gifts profound yet childlike.

63. But a friend of youth, talkative, alert,
Lithe, slender, long of tail and sharp of scent,

64. Both far and near, stumbling and collapsing,
So every jealous husband of a girl feels due alarm.

65. The lad of family and guests, should they alight at his abode,
Vigilant men who steal the shadows at noon.

66. He sees in their needs plunder by night,
While the deceitful old man sleeps.

67. He gathers them in like a collector of wildcats
And quicker to snatch them when they escape.

68. By dawn he found where we had met:
Bracelets, anklets and a broidered gown,

69. And broken necklaces discarded
Among the embers of the dying fire’s last glow.

70. At daybreak the birds with their morning song reproached me
With a yearning and the twisting pangs of lovers burnt.

71. We obtained choice extracts like the nectar
Of virgin honey from the fresh-cut radical.

72. When the dark of night falls he travels beneath it,
And the man of understanding journeys on.

73. We penetrated every high chief of the tribe
In the valley, so grieve not save for the waverer.

74. Oh who has a heart that remains as if
It were a shining hand or a bird in flight!

75. They circle with swooping flight as if their love
Were a spear-shaft brandished deep in the night.