1. Had it not been for the son of rulers and nobles of his people,
Sa'd ibn Qays would have found it hard to bear his yearning.

2. Were you not afraid of me, O ribs, when you passed the night being playful,
While my eyes were sleepless from intense passion?

3. So O ribs, you have incurred a debt of sorrow,
Which will have to be repaid by the mother of ribs with her pains.

4. You have advanced a loan which will be repaid in kind,
And provoked a lion whose den cannot be approached.

5. Had those stones hit his head,
You would have left the mother of the head boiling in her calamities.

6. How can you say “May God purify a scroll”
With its title being, “faithful ribs and faithful ribs”?

7. O ribs, Tamima was once a free woman,
But what an evil companion she found as her mate!

8. And O ribs, no sooner had she left,
Than you imprisoned her in chains, while her madness reached its crescent.