1. I dwelt in abodes with soft sand around;
On their summits the living were eager.

2. Time has ruined them till they are decayed;
Every builder of them is decaying.

3. There I stopped the ships, deeply mourning,
With yearning too violent to be masked.

4. I ask them while my tears are flowing,
Like the coming downpour at sunset.

5. The weeping of a dove that calls her comrade,
Grieving over the empty nests that sang.

6. Bring me, O eyes, some words I may address to her,
Words I may send to her from me.

7. Rhymes like greetings that go on and on
So that vain fancy cannot turn them back.

8. Through them I give my love to her hater;
The intimacy of cities, so let him draw near me.

9. Do you help my foe and strengthen sulking?
Like Rabī‘ah son of Ghaiz in his rancor?

10. One time you are an ostrich, another time
A griffon, wherever the wind lists you stray.

11. You wish them gone, so vie with them in going.
You shall surely be left while wishing remains.

12. With slanderers who have no trusted friend,
No guide who can give comfort and assurance.

13. If you dare wrong the lion in his den,
Then I am not of you, nor you of me.

14. They are my coat of mail I donned
Against the evil day and my misfortune.

15. They repulsed the informers against Tamīm
They were the folk of Ukaz; I am one of them.

16. I witnessed for them places of true service,
I came to them with love sincere within me.

17. They marched to Hujr in an army,
That day they were, in my thought, a mighty host.

18. And they marched to the Ghassan in a march
Wherein the noble horses were jostling.

19. With every tested warrior like a lion
Pouncing on the flank of a long-tailed hyena.

20. And lively girls like decorated arrows
With a band of specters round them, like jinn.

21. On the morrow when white dawn flickered,
Thrust against them in the dusty darkness.

22. Had I obeyed you in those matters
I would have met with regret in that, my age.