1. In place of her son when he disturbed me with his wailing,
It would have been better for her son and less frightening

2. For her than the slow mange that disfigures her.
Dawn lights that can exceed daybreak with their radiance

3. When congratulated become more naked in their emergence.
Nafe' was barking at me for his mother

4. Like a searcher for a lost city that arouses her.
An old woman praying the five prayers who sought the protection

5. Of the Victorious, by the one in whom she sought protection, I will not harm her
For I pity her fear of me,

6. And if Nafe' has harmed me he will protect her.
No caravan of her people came to her with what

7. Jafar's caravan came on the day of al-Hudaybiya.
It came to them with a camel that was not hijazi

8. Nor the wheatmeal paste of Damascus its yeast.
You would not see drivers driving a caravan evenly

9. With camels pacing as their camel paces.
When a Jafari woman recalls a husband of hers

10. And the place her slain were killed but her walls were not breached
It becomes clear no protector remains of Jafar's family

11. Nor, apart from the women, any zealous defenders.
Their husbands denied them when they saw them

12. Bare-chested, women whose chests had been exposed.
When the days are recalled when no host rose

13. Against the onslaught of the murky swords.
An eve when the crepuscular light made them seem

14. Like ostriches running with outstretched necks.
An eve when they met the fatality of Jafar's clan -

15. Swords in the hands of the murk - their males.
As if for the horses, the day they met them

16. At Takhifah, prey pounced on by their hawks.