1. O rider crossing the expanse of sand
On the back of a graceful-legged camel

2. Convey to Abu Sahl when you reach him
A message from his exiled servant

3. Tell him the moaning of that youth
In a state beyond any description

4. He has melted since the night you left
And fallen ill halfway to death

5. He cries but finds no comforting tears
And stays awake through the night sleepless

6. Grieving over a tender gazelle
That drops beads of pure blood

7. He is healing himself with dog fennel
From the disease of your breath

8. Excuse me sir from the man you visited
For now, later and in between

9. He told me he had for you
A fine joke to write in the papers

10. Come closer so you can hear it and keep
The secret safe in your heart don’t reveal

11. I got up heedless in haste
Walking on my feet to my doom

12. His mouth oozed a stench so foul
Promising rhymes in the thousands

13. With blood in his moustache so vile
And gum as black as coal

14. Flies buzzed around him
Like pigeons flushed out of a palm

15. His hair like syrup of dates
Or a menstruating woman’s pad

16. My nostrils doubted a fistula
From the hand of a hot brand

17. That would fell even lizards though
Placed in a guarded pot

18. And trap the one fleeing it without
Escape even from its edge

19. My soul swooned and I called him
O serpent in this cave

20. By the right of Him who spoke
To Moses and shook the mount

21. Save me what breath remains
For I’ve despaired like one falling off a cliff

22. I kept pushing him away
Exhausted retreating backwards

23. Some cloth fell from his hand
And he said oh my agony

24. He was then in a place
With a high overlooking roof

25. My leg broke, hand shook
Chest collapsed, shoulder crumbled

26. I started running away
Bolting on my feet like a dry palm frond

27. O people listen to what I
Am saying and heed my description

28. If you want the breath of our master
Let your nostrils now be sheltered

29. Then wash the hair of your beard after
Like washing stairs or palm branches

30. And fumigate it after perfuming
With everything of pleasant aroma

31. I see nothing else of what I’ve said
Will avail or be enough

32. Pluck it out and find relief
Nothing will save you but plucking

33. And fumigate his mother
With dung at the top of a flask

34. For Galen never treated stench
Except by fumigating with dung