1. With the slender-waisted fair maidens a flock of wild cats
Beauty itself made its abode among them

2. And with the spacious howdah litters borne by camels
A blessing that grazes among them like gazelles

3. O my two friends stop and question
The vestige of an abode after them now lying in ruins

4. And mourn the heart of a youth who has left it
The day they left, weeping and wailing

5. Perhaps it will tell where they went
To Al-Jar’a’s fortresses or just nomad camps

6. They departed at night and I did not feel them leave
Was it forgetfully or just a wink?

7. It was neither this nor that, but
Simply a departure that has won out

8. O dispersing, scattered worries
Behind them, seeking them are outstretched hands

9. I called to every passing breeze
“O north wind, south wind or gentle zephyr!

10. Have you any news of what has come to pass?
We have endured from their departure great pain”

11. The gentle breeze relayed her news
About the vegetation, about the flowers of the hillside arbutus

12. “He whom the malady of love has sickened
Let him treat it with the tales of the zephyr”

13. Then she said “O north wind tell me
The like of what I have told him or even better”

14. Then you, O south wind, relate
The like of what I have related or even sweeter

15. The north wind said “I have respite
In which the gentle north wind shared the most wonderful”

16. “Every evil in their love is goodness
And my torment in their contentment is sweet”

17. “To what and for what and when
Does one complain of distress or lament isolation?

18. And if they make a promise to you that you will see
Its lightning be nothing but a flitting glow”

19. The clouds traced on the cheek of gloom
From the lightning’s illumination a gilded tattoo

20. Her tears flowed from it onto
The platter of her cheek, igniting a blaze

21. A budding rose from tears
A narcissus that rains a wondrous downpour

22. And when you shoot it a glance, it unleashes
The curve of its cheek upon it like a scorpion

23. The sun beams when she smiles
My, how it makes that beloved shine!

24. Night falls when she lets down her hair
Billowing, disheveled, dark tresses

25. The bees compete whenever she steps out
My! How sweet that sip is!

26. And when she sways and glances coyly
How many gazelles spring from her glances!

27. How you flirt with the slender-waisted fair ones
O descendant of the purebred Arabs!

28. I am nothing but an Arab and thus
I love the fair complexioned and yearn for Arabs

29. I care not where fervent love has scorched us
Whether there or made us go abroad

30. Whenever I say “can not”, they say “oh but”
And when I say “why not”, they say “yes!”

31. And whenever they come to my aid or rescue
I cut across the desert, hastening the quest

32. My heart is with every passing moment
A Samaritan, whenever it sees the traces it desires the roads

33. And when they head east or west
It is as if Thul-Qarnayn follows their footsteps

34. How often we called for union covetously
How often we called to part anxiously!

35. O clan of Zawra this moon over by you
Has risen, while by me it has set

36. By God, they fight me and I fight them
How often I call behind them and take up arms!

37. My soul pants, my soul pants for a youth
Whenever a dove coos longingly!