1. I stayed awake, sleepless, the night passed without rest
My night seemed endless, with no sign of dawn

2. By your life! Death prevails
Charms bring no protection against fate

3. Destiny led him inexorably to his deathbed
And fate brought him from gladness to gloom

4. To a grave by the oleander
Where first he found peace, and peace remains

5. Time spares no noble soul
Not even the long-lived ostrich or ostrich-hen

6. An appointed time comes to all
When the arrows of death fly thick

7. He who foresaw his fate
Launched his arrows against her idols

8. He stormed her streets and cast
Her warriors down, giving them poison to drink

9. They left behind two meadows
Whose unthriving herbage bears only plants that disappoint

10. The abandoned meadows, bare and barren
Where once clear water flowed, now choked with scum

11. All night they hoped to see the moon rise
And feared the archer who might keep it hidden

12. They passed the night conversing, and when he shot
His arrows found their mark and brought destruction

13. As if, scaling a rugged peak
Or climbing a rocky crag, they stirred sleepy adders

14. Until the serpents, writhing side by side
Or twisting round each other, were fully roused

15. All night they writhed, till dawn
Rose bright and clear, putting the darkness to flight

16. Whether they escaped that dread place
Or met their destined end, none can tell

17. For at daybreak horsemen came
Whose tents the wildlife mistook for camping-grounds

18. On all sides archers, driving their swift steeds
And loosing the reins, shot home their arrows

19. Till agony filled the serpents' breasts
As the arrows pierced deep with poisoned points

20. A dove flew by, calling plaintively, and recalled
My tears for one whose death deprived me of joy

21. With wondrous eloquence she told her tale
Like a mourning woman come to lament the dead

22. Calling upon Hura's barren sands she mourned
Him whose voice falls now forever silent

23. Perhaps you are dead, or perhaps, still a youth
You have found position and fame