1. The vows of time have bound you, O ruins
Tell of the departed ones, what they did

2. So it said, I know not save that they
A raven croaked bid them farewell

3. Neither my long night nor my day grants me
One who will console me or bring them back, locked

4. Nor have I adorned myself with meadows or the
Light, and my solace from them is lost

5. This is upon me, what is upon you for them?
I said: yearning and a tear that melts

6. And I, the feelings are locked up within me
For love of others - have the camels yearned?

7. It said: wait, I would follow them forever
Whether they camped or journeyed on

8. Alas! The lover has no care
Except his passion, nor other toil

9. You left the hands of resolve to guide them
And you came to me to ask about their tale

10. So I said to the band: we have no rest
Save with Salma, though the blamer blames

11. Nor did we stop roaming the lands with a brother
Of lofty ideals, while the shade stretches

12. As if a feathered ostrich bore us
On the palms of the winds, shifting

13. It ripped open the bellies of the she-camels as
A spear rips between the ribs

14. Until their abodes appeared in the dawn
And the driver of the morning hurried in the gloom

15. Above them the full moons, veils covering them
Shelters, beneath their symbols wrapped

16. So between us was nothing but a glance and
Tears, words for us or messages

17. This to that - but what of him with rancor
Who plots against me and wrangles?

18. And if the neighbor draws near and busies me
For a moment with the arrows of calamity that pierce

19. Oh woe to him from the garb of a predator!
Many a stillness beneath it moves

20. Preserve my forbearance, do not waste it,
For after my forbearance - may your mother be bereaved!

21. And I have been cursed with the son of lightning flash
However much green is in its clouds, it vanishes

22. How many enemies my wrath has destroyed
I did not say: where are they and what did they do?