1. Does one of you have a place for me, a married man,
Or do you prefer celibacy in your separation, in despair?

2. Make clear to us that celibacy is a relief
From the nagging doubt of the anxious melancholy one.

3. As if I and my camel litter were on the hump of a towering camel,
With a skin of water or a rover holding the halter of a carrier camel,

4. Who took a little evening meal then turned his shoulders,
Signaling the soil instead of an overnight stay or folded rugs.

5. He sniffed at it and scattered its soil and stirred it up
Like the scattering of a departing wild dove's nesting place.

6. So he spent the night with a hot cheek and shoulder,
And made his bedding like a captive all tied up.

7. He spent the night next to sandy ground as if it were,
When a simpleton pegged it down, a bridal pavilion.

8. The dogs of the Beni Murr or the dogs of Beni Sinbis
Greeted him at dawn,

9. Bristling, with blue coats, as if their eyes
From wolfish greed were searchlights from a watchtower.

10. So he turned his back to them, covering them with spittle, as if it were
Hot embers on flint or dry thornbrush.

11. And he knew if he met up with them his day
Would be one of foul water if they brought about his death.

12. So they caught up with him, seizing him by hip and femur,
As the lads tore the garment of the consecrated one.

13. They buried him in the shadow of wrath and left him
Like the rotten corpse of a crow, baked by the sun.