Sol 6

  1. We stopped with the caravan at Salʿ one day,

    At a dwelling of ours that had become deserted.

  2. We repeated our sighs and cast our eyes about,

    While weeping tugged at us beside the ruins.

  3. We stopped, and the she-camels were yearning,

    As though the camels suffered more than we did.

  4. From longing, if it was not for that place—or else

    For a companion of ours who had gone far away.

  5. We stopped at an old encampment,

    And renewed our mourning by stopping there.

  6. I said to my companion, “Is there a cure?

    For longing has stirred an illness in the caravan.”

  7. And a dwelling where I had so often stopped,

    Leaving the thirsty there fully quenched.

  8. It has a claim upon those of us who yearn;

    So hurry, Hudhaym, and pay it what is due.

  9. Shed your tears, Saʿd, for my tears

    Are blood, if yours are water.

  10. Why do you not shed tears for her,

    When I have shed blood for her?

  11. The ruins nearly kill me with despair

    For their people, then revive me with hope.

  12. A love that did not please her, though it once brought joy—

    And how often love brings joy where it causes pain.

  13. It is as though the old dwellings sadden the camels,

    And their yearning or bellowing saddens us.

  14. Our mounts, swift as they were, turned aside,

    And I set them on their way only slowly.

Sol 6