1. My passion for you all, for youth itself returns
And the whiteness of the temples becomes blackness

2. The nights are Eden, and life but a neighbor
As they were before, or not, for they have no returning

3. I yearned for you with the Prophet's yearning
Twisting upon the watering-place, circling

4. The smooth-necked camels pacing, while the place contained
The sweet fresh water in its tanks conserved

5. Let passion reach what it desires, for love
Is no disgrace, nor are the homesteads lasting

6. By that despair, a fierce wild creature
Hunts, while men wonder how it may be trapped

7. When the archer has drawn his bow, and his heart shot,
He remains there and cannot control them any more

8. Next morning we paused, while the tears were flowing down
As if the eyes of those who stood there were cloud-burstings

9. The length of cares refused to be couches
And the flood of tears refused to be settled slumber

10. Between my ribs and sadness is contention
And between my lids and sleep is estrangement

11. For them everyday, with settled purpose
Calmly meets the day of parting, ready

12. So, O my far one, no device brought gain,
And O desire, no heart found safety!

13. I swore by their hands, in everything I faced
The blackness of darkness seemed upon them still

14. Like the hands of virgins who have lost their kin
For the stained blood, their sleeves were mourning bands

15. Tents furled down with them in the evening
Encampment, and in the dawn, plucking up and moving on

16. They trace the blood stains as though they were
Wounded ones left behind on the battlefield

17. They startle the gravel with their pounding like
The cricket-stones struck in the darkness for fire

18. As though night and dawn rode turn and turn upon
The rumps of pigeons following them in files

19. The hum of litter wherein no drowsy eye found hope
Like the howdahs of sand grouse lined in array

20. Camels pacing to the crowd as though their heads
Were the domes the old tribe of Ad had built

21. They shock skins and skulls and quaking ribs
While they in what befell them are defiant yet

22. For a live coal laid upon the wound, a journey
When they set out, the camels led, when they encamped

23. They turned their beasts' necks back toward the road of shame
And returned to it, haughty, contumacious

24. Theirs is an assembly wherein fame has no place
And the tethering place of shame has no steeds

25. Their houses are black through dust. Their fires
Have no ashes, and flames without embers

26. Theirs is a blinded reckoning that misled its guide
And did not know, in figuring, whither it went

27. Bewildered among the living, abject wondering
When it would seek the path of honor cut direct

28. It has diversions from the houses of the noble
And obstacles from the landslips of the glorious

29. Domes the base creep under, as if they
Though raised to the skies, could ever be assaults

30. And barren hands no supplication softens, they
Were even the clouds to weep upon them, would be stone

31. Sworn to chase the guests away, a pact of hounds
Snarling together, leashed in one bond

32. The barren riding beasts are guarded while they own
Riding beasts useless, having neither girths nor saddles

33. Was there then amongst you no gracious man or friendly
When there was not amongst you any noble steed?

34. No welcome to the house where there is no refuge
For a seeker, or a pillar for the outcast!

35. Frighten me not with spears, in ignorant fashion
For the steeps of my country are spear and crag

36. Threaten me not with swords, in foolish passion
For between me and the climbing hills is kin

37. I will gnaw your shame with words. My words for me
Have fangs, and teeth like swords. They rend and flay

38. You see for rhymes, while heaven is clear, a rain of
Lightnings thrown for you, and thunderings array

39. Thanks be to Allah's House! Their palms, though harsh
Are the protecting forests, and their bands the sand-grouse flocks

40. When they halted in glory, fearing its reverse,
They increased in the violence of their onslaught, and pressed on

41. They dwelt in the lands of height, and handed on
The habit of glory, and glory reconquered

42. In their line, stars rise on stars like a full moon's train
And in the belt of Gemini, their flashing lamps shine plain

43. Where do obligations come to rest, O mother of Malik?
And where are the men to whom distress makes appeal?

44. I locked my words away, seeking thereby
A fulsome recompense. But no return they made

45. I see the hermit's asceticism, but hope for more
For through the hermits I discern misguidance comes

46. For you no valley flowered with grazing beasts
And no generous year brought gifts of harvest corn

47. No fire for you was kindled in the blackness of night
And no gentle wealth came dancing to your courts

48. So morning dew has no share for you
Nor hopes, a playground. All desires scorned!

49. Indeed for those who come seeking, your pasturage is loss
And for those hoping, your pool disappoints their lips

50. Before the grant, you have a bitterness
And afterward, a rancor that festers unappeased

51. You planted, but between you and your planting marched
Mischief in armies, locusts, canker-worms in brigades