1. I wish I knew who pitched the tents
And kept their word or broke their bond

2. Arabs proud of their zeal, zealous lest
Their kinship frays, their pride is shamed

3. They left with heart and eyes – and yet
The eyes returned, the heart remained

4. Bearing their wrongs and lies afar
While we bear passion and romance

5. Seeing those cheeks as gardens, we
Made our eyelids like clouds, askance

6. Heeding love’s call, we disobeyed
The sly rebukers and their slams

7. What love-sick youth did love not mar
Stamping his heart as its firm stand?

8. Eyes assailed him with arrows, till
His rapt heart grew confused, nonplussed

9. Thus was he with them like the son
Of Mus’ab, seeking justice just

10. He came and stayed when he let flow
Tears, when he bent and hailed me, when

11. He glanced at me and bade me “Go!”
To love my heart said, “There again”

12. Bowed his waist, so he gained the day
Vanquishing my patience, he gainsayed

13. Protecting his cheek’s horizon, see
The flash of his zeal – have you surveyed?

14. Mine, devoted to one who remains
Devoted to two, lovesick, engrossed

15. He saw my body, my tear, my heart, my mind
So he sighed and was undone, sought and posed