1. O people of Gerona, is there a guard for your vigil
When the stars of Aries rise

2. In salt plains like gardens at dawn
With the Pleiades setting in pouring rain

3. Or like a necklace of pearls, chrysolite,
Gold, white silk and coolness

4. Pleasant to hearers of song
To a gentle, weighty, firm rhythm

5. I was at my house's door at dawn
Waiting for al-Shakiri to saddle my ride

6. And my night was prolonged for a need that presented itself
I hurried it while the stars did not tire

7. So a black passed by me in the darkness like
An elephant, broad-shouldered and muscular

8. With a snout as spacious as a cavern
And an eye like glowing embers

9. With a bare sword like a millstone
On tusks like columns

10. Cloven hooves, loose shackles
Long legs in rags

11. The wind carried from him to me a scent
Like the bouquet of meadows in soft dew

12. Musk and ambergris in locked cases
Gray hair with musk and wholesome amber

13. So I said, “It is not so when
The repentant have foul odors”

14. A black horse gone from the furnace, having
The glory of Prince Nushwan amongst nobles

15. “This, by the Lord of the heavens, is stranger than
A wild donkey in the wilderness amongst camels”

16. Recite it back, O Nasr, that I may inveigh against him
For his muscle is of muscles

17. So he said, fearing our need would escape us
“And this is not of major sins”

18. So I said, “Leaving unnecessary talk, O diminished resolve
Is the trait of fleeing and laziness

19. Meet him before he misses you in his path
Between these roads”

20. So he turned from me indifferently and left
Marveling at his reason and my deficiency

21. And he shouted from behind him, “Wait, O black one
I have no enmity to race with you from before

22. Return to me that pony, and if
He has faulted in his address do not increase it

23. Answer when asked, temperate
In speech, and be silent if you have not been asked

24. And it is better for him to avoid superfluities
If he would be safe from frivolity and stumbling

25. Consider me hurriedly stumbling
In the train of a rumpled, lousy cloak”

26. And he went as he who urinates goes dripping
Urine in his garment like discharge

27. And he thought me easy prey so he displayed to me
A cudgel on his camel like an arched bow

28. Black, crowned with a yellow ring
Adorning it over mature palm leaves

29. And he said, “For you is a blow to drive it
Into you, and if you have not been struck, you will be!”

30. For long has a docile nature been easier
Than its like to endure

31. “This, though it is well-mannered
Of the trained horses, humble and submissive

32. By Allah, it has long served kings
Behind curtains and coverings

33. And I have carried them on carpets
Without stumbling or slipping

34. For it was crafted by me and the craft of
My fathers, long ago in early times

35. And it increased in the state of the Jews through it
An officer over passed eras

36. I have torn open their stomachs
And pierced with galloping and origins

37. So look upon it, and if you see
A resemblance to it, do not deny me, O Father of Foals

38. And take a staff wrapped in silver
That has never been disgraced or humiliated”

39. I said to him, “May you never lack blessing!
You have shown what is not common

40. I have found pardon without asking
An incomparable pearl that cannot be bought in pounds

41. But I – by Him who gives you life
And ordains for you the ultimate hope –

42. Have never cloven a back with a cudgel
Nor felt the striking of a lance in my actions

43. Nor have I been called for this – so seek for your refuge
One who would enjoy you instead of me

44. And bring – say to me by God – from where did you accept?
And leave me from these chronic problems”

45. So he said to me, “I have stayed with
Your worker, this Abu Al-Fadl, Yousef ibn Ali

46. And he placated me with his scent and he placated me
With blades amidst intense onions

47. I left him by day lazy, not looking
To service or work”

48. So I said, “You have exaggerated and falsely claimed
Against a noble Shaykh inclined to nobility

49. His father clement, his grandfather a king
Called Hanina and his uncle Al-Samali

50. Perhaps this is other – describe him. Do not
Deceive the likes of me with these tricks

51. And if you are truthful you will be saved, but if
You are lying I will rebuke and condemn you

52. And if you are being untruthful I will slap you with the shoes
For if you are speaking, then speak!”

53. So he said, “O my master, you were quick to anger
And man was created of haste

54. This one whom I stayed with is halfway through fifty
Above fully grown and below bent

55. In his mouth is stench and under his armpit
An eye that squirts pus in its socket

56. With sagging molars, perforated palms
Neither snub-nosed nor wide-nostriled, folding his guts and without work

57. And when his spirit rises he is
More piercing than a sword in the hand of a hero

58. He strikes down the birds of the sky on the highest
Horizon and terrifies the summits of hills

59. You stink of all that is said when
Exaggerating, citing examples

60. And he is constantly obsessed with that
To my ill-fortuned destiny of biting and kissing

61. Yes, and at the door of his barn I spent a night
In fear upon fear

62. I fear his hernia will attack me
And I will become an example amongst examples

63. A black of night amidst his varicose veins
A pillar of morning cutting through an inguinal hernia

64. So I said, ‘These are his traits,’ and he had
Preoccupied my heart with that man

65. So he said, ‘Since you have worried for him
He is at the peak of potency

66. He lives luxuriously and has attained some
Pleasures that none have attained or received

67. He is like a bride laying down
At times on his back and at times on his front like an ember amidst ashes

68. Attaining both pleasures delighted
Once with his behind and once with his front

69. And he helps without fearing the pain of barren
Coupling or fearing pregnancy

70. While you, O son of manure, are heedless,
Busy with his matter while he is not busy

71. So I said, tell me how you know him?’
And he said, ‘Spare me from these thoughts

72. I was a worker with a wine press
In Tyre that belonged to the secretary of the army

73. And I would spend my days manifest
When free from my tasks

74. One day I slept, having stayed up the
Previous night, tipsy like one drunk

75. The wind blew, revealing me though
I did not feel it, and my pants flew off

76. And for that moment, it exposed me, and I
Was observed by a procession of discipline

77. Surrounded by yellow banners, horses, and men,
White steel, and weapons

78. On a donkey like deaf stone
Hewn from the quarry of a mountain

79. Neither snub-nosed nor wide-nostriled, neither
Voracious nor folds in his belly or work

80. And he was ahead of the rows, preceded by
The chasing hawks with twisted beaks

81. Fighters like prowling
Lionesses or sturdy palm trunks

82. And he turned to look, and he saw
My pants having slid from my rear

83. And his stare at me intensified as
A hungry wolf stares at a lamb

84. And I did not spend my night, and by your life, O Master
Until I was summoned by messengers

85. And I came to him fearful like
A bird reluctantly enters a snare

86. And I was dumbfounded when I saw his beard
And I nearly collapsed from the shock

87. And he thought I was shy so he began
To humor me with jokes and amorous words

88. And he said, ‘This shyness, O dear one
Is harmful – avoid the harmful fears

89. Cast off dreadful hesitations
And avoid fear, O avoidance!

90. If I have honored you to raise
Your worth, then some dishonor benefits me

91. Remove my slippers and slap my nape
And do not look to my power or boyhood

92. Or my slaves, or carpets, or fragrance
Or cunning, or adornments, or garments

93. If the bridle splits my mouth
Then solace comes after affliction

94. And after joking, O dear one, there is no
Shame of the head nor disgrace’

95. And he did not stop gently stroking my chin
And strutting leisurely

96. So when I played the donkey he began
To raise his glory from the shoulders

97. And he fell on his face and forehead, having
Soaked around my testicles with urine

98. I stabbed him a piercing stab, honest
As a tradition, hitting his heels

99. And he said, ‘You have pained my seat!’
And he continued calling out in distress and nonsense

100. And it rumbled his belly, would that
I had avoided its like and not been heedless

101. Then he threw at me a shoe that
Bloodied my nose so I reciprocated in kind

102. So I said, ‘O master, O my hope!
I think this pony is made of hardened leather’

103. And he said, ‘You missed having spilled my blood!’
So I said, ‘No – by God – it was not spilled

104. Where is the long-necked cudgel? My darling one – from
The red smudging of nails detached and scattered!

105. Why have you not brought out for me from your
Barn’s door that which straightens bent branches!’

106. So when he set about confusing me
With a spear that did not penetrate my rear

107. He said, 'Had you not known that the weapon
Of my masculinity is my weapon in every struggle?

108. Take a golden bracelet more fitting
For it than abandonment'

109. 'And do not blame me - so what can I do for
A strong desire, brought down and made to bend?

110. It prevents it shame, so you relax
The edges of what mends tears'

111. Yes, and you confronted me with a deaf one
That passed through a place of chronic pain

112. You confronted my heart, unfettered,
In its matter with a flaming thunderbolt

113. And it stirred what was beneath my waist
In a way that nearly drove me to madness and confusion

114. O my lord, what is his name? So I said, ‘Abu Al-Aswad’
He is teknonymed and not named

115. So he said, ‘O excellent, Abu Al-Aswad who helped us
With the weapon of his masculinity!’

116. ‘Has he coupled with other than it though God
Has made water purification for every bather?

117. Go away and promise after it you will show me
After my sleep pleasures at the pond’

118. ‘And do not be afraid after it’ – and he called to a eunuch,
Short in pants – ‘Clean him! And do not mind!'

119. For this is the custom of our lord
Inherited from his father unceasingly

120. And I have remained in the closet of carpets
A few days garbed and isolated

121. Until my energies slackened and it became clear to him
In the laxity of calm and laziness

122. Then he sang amorously with his penis in hand
Subsiding after rigidity and weight

123. ‘O land of India with tents of diversion from boredom
You have revived those sorrowful and dejected’

124. And he said to me, ‘For you in Damascus support
Waqfs, tax-free property, and estates indeed!’

125. And he knows the blacks in love for them
And his opinion does not waver’

126. Take my letter and go to him and do not
Leave a word he has said unsaid

127. And say, ‘The night confused me, appearing
To shake the breasts of young maidens

128. Flying wings when met
Until the branches bow to it from maturity

129. Flying throughout the lands in the darkness of night
And seeking the valley’s ponds

130. And I have no intercessor with you other than
A cudgel that eased Abu Sahl

131. For it will soon meet it and love it
If it comes with impudence

132. And it will attack it more beloved
Than family and relatives and maternal uncles

133. So I came trusting in Abu
Sahl’s words – and whoever hears a wish attains it’

134. But we did not gain other than staying up late
Into blindness, and a shaking that exhausts strength’

135. And this was the beginning of my knowing
Him, so enough – do not connect what is detached

136. And our day has passed without work
Hoped for it a wage or aim

137. I thought I was called for pleasure but I did not know
I was called for contention’

138. I said to him, ‘Go away accompanying
For you have related to him a momentous event’

139. So he went on his way as if
Carrying the weight of late nights and boredom

140. Saying whilst the dawn shone clear,
‘Oh Lord of certain shame!’

141. ‘The marriage of Iblis was false
Without witnesses or guardian consent

142. God did not bless them, for they came with
What is not permissible in faiths

143. And I swore by God I seek refuge
From evil and every despicable stand

144. Thanks to the Granter of safety from
A wound medicated by this remedy’