1. We asked the desert, had it understood the question,
When did it make acquaintance with the gazelle and the deer?

2. We did not mean the wild animals to it, but
We meant the sun of Ramah and the crescent moon.

3. A crescent after a crescent it hid,
Beauty so adored from it beauty.

4. The night clothed it with luxuriant branches and mist,
And the dew spread moderation.

5. As if the bramble carries from it a branch,
When the stars sparkle, it tilts.

6. It sees its unions as forbidden,
And its love for it is permitted killing.

7. The lost and the rover alike sought refuge there,
God watered them both: rover and lost.

8. And it pulled to the left of the wind a tent,
So its scent sweetened the north wind.

9. Imagination knocked indeed, so passion was provoked,
So my soul ransomed your imagination, imagination.

10. It learned from you long estrangement,
And became, like you, absent from union.

11. My two friends, look at the glittering lightning,
As if it loaded its retainers on the hillside.

12. It shone from the firebrand of dried wood,
So it reminded me through it of the pure, the permitted.

13. When they descended the sand dune ropes we said:
The rain of life watered those ropes.

14. Where the torrents of each valley flow,
Its floods quenched that flooding.

15. And its rain made the hilltops thrive,
So vegetation on them became abundant.

16. When the winds of summer blow, they spend the night
Surpassing the ardour of littleness from the clouds.

17. And the humiliated, blessed mares,
As if their necks had necklaces.

18. They drank the fifth after the fifth until
Thirsty, they almost drank tainted water.

19. As if the murkiness where they spent the night
Stirred up the sands in its blessedness.

20. She complained of exhaustion so I said: Mother,
Be thankful for this exhaustion.

21. And pitch the saddle from you in a good land,
Where the reverent pitch their saddles.

22. By a king, when he gives gifts,
We belittled in their presence heavy coffers.

23. He attained and attained the summit of all praise,
While many do not attain though they attained.

24. The generous of tent, long may he be accompanied,
Thus may the best of men accompany him.

25. If you unveiled him you’d find in him
A purity in which you’d see no flaw.

26. He exhausted wealth until nothing remains
For him except the beauty of renown as wealth.

27. When a people loathed a land,
And found no life in it, they migrated.

28. A young man generous of hand, when
His palms spill blood, his palm fills spilling.

29. If we disdained the springs of every sea,
We’d venture its fresh, limpid sea.

30. And we sent the ships, sharp and swift,
To it both people and traveling caravans.

31. Laden with goods that if mountains bore
The mountains of Tihama or those mountains.

32. When kings stand in ranks tomorrow, right
To every merit, and stand left

33. Of the people who when they gained
Access, taught people access.

34. Tall, carrying to the enemies
Tall, carrying tall spears.

35. On the humps of vain things bearing
Where fear tightens the course.

36. When they plunged into the pool with them, they bent them
With flames in its loops flashes.

37. As if the new moons were forged
For their hands and feet horseshoes.

38. Trained with them to wade into deaths,
So they knew as the combatants knew combat.

39. When I think of the world and of them,
I find its kings have dependents.