1. Tomorrow dawned, so he mounted his steed
And yearned, though yearning is not for comrades

2. His tears called forth griefs that multiplied
And twilights over ruins that moulder and decay

3. And showed a cheek once hidden, and another
Of tears that testify to separation

4. It was as if the abode, when its features vanished,
Was like this shinbone or some of the writ

5. When lovers were recalled in it, an eye would ache
That aches for lovers over their abodes

6. The abode of the living at Ar-Rukhkha in Yemen
Is ruin, and the abode is on the way to ruin

7. They aroused longing and sent back youthfulness
To one distinguished in condition and plight

8. And nothing remains of a changing world
Except its events, foe of the wolves

9. And the life of a man turns against him
Capriciously, and bliss is on the way to change

10. And every brother will depart from his brother
While most of what you love is on the way to loss

11. And when she who was Umm Bakr left us
And remoteness stretched out after dejection

12. And I spent the night needing her in my breast
With a fire from her burning between the veils

13. I traced her image and sat complaining
To her of what I faced in my confusion

14. I speak to a glimpse of her in the earth
Like the speech of one seeking refuge from punishment

15. As if I were complaining to her
Of my concerns, though complaining is to dust

16. May God water the tombs at the plot of Abd
And the Eastern quarters, days of tombs

17. And days we had that were short but pleasant
Over cubs sleeping of the wild dogs

18. Distant indeed has the visitation become! I spend the night weeping,
With yearning surveying me from every door

19. And my pact with Al-Fura` and Umm Bakr –
Ladies heavy of buttocks, pleasant of scent!

20. Huntresses with every valor,
Who flow, when they walk, in floods of musk

21. Imaged – the eyes are confused by her –
As if her talk were the drunkenness of wine

22. Nights I do not complain to the rebuker
Nor the blamer, from the unruliness of youths

23. And a sayer who saw me care nothing
For the censure of blamers toward rebuke

24. You have wearied of the rebuke every day
And evil is what led you to rebuke

25. If replying stirs up war against you
Why do you not refrain from reply?

26. I protect the kernel of my affection
And reserve the noble for the pith

27. And which gallant among the eloquent could suffice me
In addressing and speech?

28. And my invitation gathers the traces of my people -
They are the lions, the audacious, under cover

29. Rulers of glory and elevated honor
Who repel presumption against the stricken

30. And a people who deny the clouds of my people -
We raised above them the height of the clouds

31. And we are virtuous when we grow angry
With dreams lofty as plateaus

32. And if we hasten with a raid against a people,
We are not hasty in punishment

33. We nominate an unjust man and reproach a disheveled one,
And we are content with praise instead of reward

34. You see us, when the heights differ,
And the abased have resorted to the rugged--

35. We lead battalions and drive others
As if their armor were the blackness of night

36. When the lands of Bani Ma`ad are alarmed
We protect them with clubs of wrath

37. And every long-armed graybeard among them
Steps forth with gathered loins

38. Of those who harbor the fates of death,
His rest will be in the shade of staves

39. When youth passes, die beautifully!
For pleasures are only in youth