1. Whether Salma aroused you, or the early dawn of her abode hastened,
And she circled Antioch with steps of partridges.

2. Over those emigrating at night her danger subsided,
And she surrendered them to the restless hyenas.

3. Morning drinkers from the bosom of my embrace,
Evening quarry of the two hugging sides.

4. On a hillock, pacing about the land, their burdens confined, their homes clustered,
Brooks at the top of Dhat al-Balid as though it were

5. A date palm hanging over with its ripe dates.
From much riding, watering from the shoulder of an eminent she-camel, collected for watering and gathering for the watering places its water skin.

6. She traveled at night and her abode was independent,
Her caravan passed with portions of the night.

7. Her chastity appeared in the evening between us,
And the screens between us were uncovered.

8. With a neck like the neck of the curving sand grouse its plumage adorns it,
The braids of the relaxed pleats portray it.

9. The hem of her gown dirtied with sand
From a hill whose accumulated dust colored it.

10. She hastened from the southern parts of Kinanah
To Wajmah, when its heated sands burned.

11. And she passed by Tagwa with young she-camels as though they were
Ships sailing smoothly on the sea.

12. Or cattle from Wadi Ghiran taking the air
For whom the wind built a lofty and ruined abode.

13. I looked and the Camels of Balaqith prevented them
And the bellies of Wadi Biramah and its hills.

14. To mounts with branded forelocks, branded as was done for Mayasir,
Their successive brands gashed their breasts.

15. Over them were docile camels from Dibab, their necks oscillating,
The girths of their saddles rubbing their backs.

16. So when they reached the destination between Ghayqah
And Yalayl, they turned aside and spread out their breasts.

17. And I followed them with my eyes until I saw them
Approach Fayruz and al-Qanan and visit it.

18. And I continued to shed tears and my companion did not cease
Weeping for your love until it distressed my conscience.

19. For I and my meditation on the distant love
And mountains being pastured around us and their clefts.

20. And hands of Saba like fawns stretched over the departed
Their forearms white without bracelets.

21. I imagined myself in the land of Ibn Layla,
Spacious though desolate its abandoned encampment.

22. So if I gathered the skirts of my mount it would alarm me
at the desolate encampments of Hulwan and their deserted homes.

23. I say when the birds pass in fright,
their wings fluttering without my stirring them.

24. May your daughters ransom you Ibn Layla - the misfortunes have rendered my she-camel infirm,
and whoever was riding her, man or jinn, and his home.

25. The daughter of al-Bakri said the day she met me,
By your life, the world and all its tumult is a delusion.

26. You would have been humbled by the blows of fate and battered,
Excellent - the hair of the head perishes and is little.

27. The cords of Salma's litter and the youth which passed away -
The death of Ibn Layla when its news reached you.

28. If the days of Ibn Layla preceded me,
And my years were long after him and his months.

29. Then surely I will come to his grave, resigned,
Though a dug pit will not speak to its visitor.

30. Nor were my companionship with Abdulaziz and my praise of him,
With borrowed phrases tossed back by the one who borrows them.

31. I witnessed Ibn Layla in critical situations
Where wisdom increases the wise man's wisdom through their gravity.

32. You would see the people hiding their smiles in his presence,
And the shame of frivolous talk warns them of it.

33. So neither the aloof words attract him,
Nor the sincere counsel, however far its implication.

34. And I will not forget him though the sands separate us
As the winds blow over the earth and its clefts gape.

35. My life remains as long as the east wind blows
At Baram, though it does not drive the rocks.

36. But the sincerity of love, however the north blows,
And it has not ceased to be decisive in its gravity.