1. I say to the lofty ruins whose bones
The breeze drags its shadows elevated

2. A partner of withered palm trees who met
Bare and miscarried the clothed fetus

3. It let loose what was knotted in the gums
And unleashed what was locked in the wombs

4. Emigrants who milk intimacy but plots
Of travel did not taste shelter or home

5. And behind her the least of the one-fifth I do not see
The shelter if it descends with her laden

6. And the despised travelers it paved for them
Worn garments which who wore has stumbled

7. When the son of Mudrik brought me cotton
I met from the birds of Iraq more barren

8. Flies that pierce or wings that sever
The backs of steeds leaving the bones more gaunt

9. Strong, faithful to the son of Yusuf fulfilling
His obedience to Him who has carried and borne

10. And if Salma were weighed against the patience of the son of Mudrik
On the scale your patience would be heavier

11. I will repay the favor you brought me
With your palms so listen to poetry from one who picked

12. Verses neither Zuhair nor his son could manage
Nor whom they made crazed and rambling

13. Nor could Amr ibn Kulthum weave the like
And it exhausted Labid and Jarwal to contend

14. And Nabighat Dhubyani and he who
I see death as some of what he fantasized