1. Forgotten, in his neglected seat
Like a question that forgets to ask

2. Like a fire searching for a flame
In which to kindle itself, bewildered

3. Like an embryo in the bosom of a mother
Yearning for her to become pregnant

4. He floats and settles like a little bird
Yearning in a locked cage

5. He sips like a dark dream
And stares like a blind specter

6. He smells the footsteps of the coming dawn
In the middle of the long night

7. And he forms the silence into morning coquetry
Native and roseate and kohl-darkened

8. And he wastes proffered beauty
In revealing the most beautiful void

9. He chants to the lazy corner
And appeals to the most indolent nook

10. And searches for his second mouth
And yearns for his first mouth

11. And the four walls listen
To his eyes, attentively watching

12. Beckoning like a girl begging
For love, and when she smiles, bashful

13. He seethes and rages like a fire
In the palm of a flaming storm

14. Cast off like a forgotten grave
And to all the world he travels

15. He invades the moons and does not tire
And crosses the sea and does not get wet

16. In every storyteller’s tale
His is the longest chapter

17. In every twist of a song
A female adorns herself for his passion

18. In every book about a hero
There is news of him not conveyed

19. Alive in ephemeral history
In the thirsty dunes he withers

20. He leads the horse (Antarah)
He drags the train with (al-Akhtal)

21. And battles (Caesar) in (Rome)
Like (Spartacus) and does not fail

22. He folds (Alexander) in his hand
And roams on the shoulder of (Achilles)

23. And returns today to yesterday
And makes yesterday the future

24. And brings together different times
Into moments that know what they ignore

25. They desire, intend, challenge
Hesitate, race, imagine

26. So he stirs up (Abraha), and ignites
The eyes of (Sinai) with the blood of the invader

27. He swoops, flaming, over (the Golan)
And casts (al-Shimar) away from the spring

28. With his finger he erases (Saigon)
And shreds (Khyber) with the sickle

29. He hurls (Khosrow) from his palace
And battles weaponless in (Haifa)

30. The bombardment wounds him not
The killing does not kill him

31. He escapes from the throat of death
To the most lowly birth-place

32. He uproots the universe to remake it
Richer and shape it better

33. And recasts the world anew
Or commands it to transform

34. A castaway traveling from remoteness
Like a specter to greater specterness

35. In every labyrinth he seeks guidance
In every conflagration he bathes

36. He invades the unknown unconsciously
And unconsciously does not know what he does

37. So he returns to shape what he destroyed
Or goes on erasing what took shape