1. When the horizon shone with light
Like the smile of a radiant lip,

2. And the darkness' tresses were combed,
And the star of night inclined to slumber,

3. We set out against the eye of the beast and the wolf
Fearsome, dreading the encounter,

4. Wounding like the brown scorpion,
Keen, unleashing our innards,

5. Like a stroke from an evenly balanced reed pen
Or a fold in the hem of a cloak,

6. Borne on the wings of the air,
Snatching strides without delay,

7. And, a prisoner with limbs bound,
It followed us with a white hide

8. Like a shooting star's trail in the sky,
And it knows reproach from prayer

9. With a drooping ear,
Like a white lily blossom,

10. With a perforated hoof
And a pupil meager of lashes,

11. Pure as a raindrop
Flowing between the sand dunes,

12. Like the glide of a yellow serpent,
It sensed between the slopes and the open space

13. A herd of white-rumped gazelles
In an empty, illuminated valley

14. With the belly of a green serpent
In it like the scales of a patterned serpent,

15. As if it were the tresses of dusk,
Hunting before strife and toil,

16. Fifty, no less in the counting,
And we sold the meats in blood,

17. O supporter of despair over hope!
You shot the ground into the sky

18. And hit nothing into the air,
So we are satisfied with the great toil.

19. There - that shot with the son of water.