1. O abode of Mayya, amidst the highlands and the sand,
Old age has consumed it and time has passed it by,

2. I stood in it calling out, questioning it,
It gave no answer while the land was void of people,

3. Save the wild animals spending the night therein,
And ostriches like water-troughs amid the desolate sands,

4. It reflected their distant voices and returned the echoes,
The beating of drums at Al-Tha’d like lightning in clouds,

5. It freed a prisoner who was confined,
And raised him up to the two roof-tops and the bier,

6. It became empty while its inhabitants moved away,
He who lamented over it lamented over Lubad,

7. So ignore what you see since it cannot be reversed,
And drive the camels gently through the soft sands,

8. Cast by the forelocks into the valley of Dakhish,
With a ringing sound like that of cracking by hailstones,

9. As though my camel-litter when the day declined with us
On a miserable, lonely day amid the hissing wind,

10. And the trees of a desolate, feared wasteland,
Bending, like the straight polished Indian sword,

11. Over which the northerly wind blew, with intense cold,
So it shivered for fear of the sound of dogs and passed the night sleepless;

12. I set them on it and it continued hissing at them,
A troop of she-camels, innocent of pregnancy,

13. While he was snarling, wherever I made him halt,
At the onslaughts of war by the stony tracts of Nujud,

14. He charged the wild cows, protecting them,
With the onslaughts of a piercing trotter when recovering from lameness,

15. As though issuing from the side of his companion
A stupid camel, whom his owner had left behind at a camping-place,

16. So he continued swallowing the rich herbage, hunching up,
In a miserable state, truly without any friend;

17. When a comrade saw his companion's madness
And no way to his sense or guidance,

18. His soul said to him, "I see no hope here,
And your master is not safe and sound";

19. So it will take me to Nu'man—verily he possesses
Excellence above men both far and near.

20. I do not see any man among the people resembling him,
Nor any retinue of the tribesmen except one;

21. Namely Solomon, when Allah said to him,
"Journey in the wilderness and mark it out with stones",

22. And reduce the jinn to obedience; verily I have permitted them
To build Tadmur with clay and stone,

23. So whoever obeys you, benefit him through his obedience,
Even as he obeyed you, and guide him to righteousness;

24. And whoever disobeys you, punish him with chastisement
That will deter the wrongdoers and is not simply a bandage;

25. None is suited for this affair but you or one whom you preceded
And outstripped the steed when it strains to the utmost;

26. He gave to Farwah a hundred reddish-white camels, whose succession
Of gifts is not given for misery;

27. The Giver decked them out with trappings,
Bright like the full moons in their upper parts;

28. And also chestnut horses, whose girths
Were bound with the ropes of Hira, new and strong,

29. And runners, the ends of whose leading-ropes trailed along,
Cooled by the blowing of the northerly winds, fresh and sweet,

30. While the horses were kicking up the dust-clouds in their excitement,
Like birds escaping from a storm and intense cold;

31. Judge with the judgment of the girl of Huyay
When she looked at a flock of pigeons coming to water,

32. Accompanied by a hawk, and then followed
By one like an unEyelinered bottle free from dust,

33. She said: "Would that this pigeon flock were ours
Together with our own dovecote—and half as many more!"

34. They counted them, and found them ninety-nine, lacking nothing and with nothing over,
So she completed a hundred including her own doves,

35. And quickly finished the reckoning of that number.
No—by Him whose Kaaba I have touched,

36. And whose body the buildings at Najd have not harbored,
And by the believers who take refuge with the birds,

37. Whom the riders of the valley and of Sa'd touch!
I have said naught of evil in what you have done

38. If I raise not my whip-hand against myself;
But the saying of certain people has distressed me,

39. Their saying being a blow with a cranium on my liver.
Then may my Lord chastise me with a chastisement

40. That will rejoice the eye of him who brings you calumny!
I am told that Abu Qabus has threatened me—

41. But there is no repose for him who is enraged like a lion.
Gently! The ransom of all the tribes is yours,

42. And I have no wealth or children to lose;
Do not cast me into a predicament from which I have no escape,

43. Even if your enemies have inveigled you with presents.
For when the winds blow fiercely the Euphrates—

44. Its eddies cast up the white spume in bunches—
Every valley contributing a flooding rain,

45. Therein debris of the tamarisk and papyrus—
The sailor remains in fear of it, seeking refuge

46. In a bittern-bed beyond the sand and gravel,
One day with richer gifts than it, it gives superfluous gifts,

47. And the bounty of today does not prevent that of tomorrow—
This is my praise; so if you hear it, 'tis well;

48. For I have not made myself liable to curses and shackles.
Lo, this excuses him whom you benefit not;

49. For its owner is a partner in misery.