1. I was kept awake by a flash of lightning that illuminated far from me,
While my human nature was swimming in the pool of tears.

2. Nothing shone for me except what lay between my ribs,
A burning like the secret of flint, concealed by its striker.

3. Oh what yearning I tame whose wings refuse
Except to alight on the breasts of the passionate!

4. On the cheeks of those who complain I calm endless sorrows,
As if it were wealth too abundant for the open spaces.

5. How I yearn for Nejd and the water-holes there
Like the love-mad camel bellowing with want!

6. Shall I intone my songs when the boughs murmur
Over the soft-voiced, graceful, slender branches?

7. I wipe my eyes though tears provoke them
And how copious are the tears while the heart overflows!

8. A counselor whispered, seeking to advise me,
But I lack the means to take advice.

9. She said, “Will not your heart recover,
Now that your temples are furrowed by aging?”

10. I said, “Leave me! For my passions in my breast
Will remain with sorrow however long.”

11. “Do not mention Nejd and its balmy air!
For its beloved verdure is ruined and perished.”

12. In me is an agitation - if the virgins knew it,
Their fluttering sleeves would startle the gazelles.

13. In me is a yearning - were I one who divulged it
The desolate places would flow with those who grieve.

14. In the nearby encampments are lonely maidens
Whose heavy anklets beneath their gowns sound gently,

15. Who glance with eyes like antelopes, wild, dark-eyed,
Veiling themselves so those eyes give no occasion for blame.

16. The ambitious eye possessed no means of bold unseemly staring,
Nor the chaste spirit any way to be wholesome.

17. Small wonder that a hunter finds repose in hunting
When a wild deer wanders gracefully into view.