فَلَو أَنَّ شَيئاً فائِتَ المَوتِ أَحرَزَت

فَلَو أَنَّ شَيئاً فائِتَ المَوتِ أَحرَزَت

عَمايَةُ إِذ راحَ الأَرَحُّ الموقِفُ

عَمايَةُ إِذ راحَ الأَرَحُّ الموقِفُ

If anything could escape death, it would have been sheltered by

If only something that escaped death I had seized

ʿAmāyah, when the broad-hoofed, banded-legged one went forth.

Blindness, when the most gracious departed, the trysting-place,

سَما طَرفُهُ وَاِبيَضَّ حَتّى كَأَنَّهُ

سَما طَرفُهُ وَاِبيَضَّ حَتّى كَأَنَّهُ

خَصِيٌّ جَفَّت عِندَ الرَحائِلِ أَكلُفُ

خَصِيٌّ جَفَّت عِندَ الرَحائِلِ أَكلُفُ

His gaze rose, and he grew white, until he seemed

Lofty its glance, till it whitened, as though it were

a dark-faced eunuch of Jaffat beside the saddles.

A gelded camel that dried up when the camels marched off.