1. I bear witness to the gaunt she-camel carrying me,
Her cheekbones prominent, her sides stripped bare,

2. As if, when her owner mounted, forcing her ahead,
She were a meal set out for the hyena by night.

3. When the sleeping onlookers see her approaching
A touch of unblemished radiance flashes from her.

4. Her pacing is apace and her gait a quickening,
Her flesh scanty, her belly constricted.

5. Her foreleg swimming, her hindleg prancing,
Her eye kindling, her back hollowed in.

6. The water streaming, the saddlebags sagging,
The canes creaking, her hue a dusky grey.

7. As though, when the torrent was flooding and she frisked,
A bay, with no protection on the look-out hill,

8. She spied a figure above her from a look-out,
And beneath her to him were bones scattered.

9. So straight toward him through the air she hurtled,
Urged on by the puffing of the gusts against her.

10. She poured down on him and nations do not pour down
On the wretched like trials and evil greater.

11. Like a bucket, steady on her the load that burdened her,
Though he betrayed her, reproached her, and was ungracious to her.

12. Not like her in the free air that seeks
Or like him on the earth pursued.

13. Like the down and the winds in their appearance a marvel,
No blame in persistence against frustration.

14. She reached him and her claws enveloped him.
He slipped from beneath her and the kettle drums pounded.

15. He took refuge on a boulder from her when she flagged,
Both it and he on the rock were torn by her claws.

16. Then she implored the surface of the earth to bury him
With her tongue, and her lips, and her weeping.

17. Death missed him by a handspan, and he did not escape
Save by that which was inscribed for him already.

18. He continues ensconced, watching her,
And watching for nightfall, for nighttime is veiled.

19. Best it is, whether sun has risen or sun has set,
Sought out by the forelocks of the horses,