1. After Salma's departure an abandoned encampment, with the tents' flaps blowing,
The pools of my courtyard they would visit, their gates now locked.

2. A land now empty of all its dwellers,
With no life but the wild beasts and some tents.

3. As if the relics of their time here embroidered on the encampment's sands
Were archives washed away by my courtyard's rains.

4. And the day the caravan traveled on after its sojourn,
I stood by the manor, now fallen in ruins.

5. I went away, leaving the dwellings to the twisting sands,
Never once, if they vanished, would I go after them.

6. A woman seeking the love of Salma asked insistently
Until with age, all wooing was done.

7. She pours herself out when she draws near, and is poured out when distant,
As if, my dear, you never knew your suitor grows old.

8. Are you asking about Sulayma? Always has she
Declined my love, at times roughly, at times gently.

9. I said to her, "Do not make me like those men
Who fawn before every marry glance and slender waist."

10. "Sulayma is shy when we meet,
And to her I am an unwanted suitor."

11. She gave me free rein the day she said to her sister,
"No ardent lovers' passion, if in it are no sighs or quarreling or reproach-"

12. Never have my eyes seen anyone turn away like Sa'd,
Or bear what your brother is blamed for.

13. When she hinted at hope for us, I pursued it-
For hopes once stirred, necks are humbled.