تَيَمَّمتُ لَهبًا أَبتَغي العِلم عِندَهُم

وَقَد رُدَّ عِلمُ العَائِفينَ إلى لَهبِ

I sought knowledge from their conflagration

Yet the learning of effeminate ones has returned to conflagration

تَيَمَّمتُ شَيخًا مِنهُمُ ذا بَجَالةٍ

بَصيرًا بِزَجرِ الطَيرِ مُنحنيَ الصُلبِ

I sought out an elder among them of great dignity

Insightful in divining the language of birds, bent of spine

فَقُلتُ لَهُ مَاذا تَرى في سَوَانِحٍ

وَصَوتِ غُرابٍ يَفحَصُ الوَجهَ بالتُربِ

So I asked him, “What do you see in the entrails

And the cawing of a raven probing the sand with its beak?”

فَقَالَ جَرَى الظَبيُ السَنيحُ بِبَينِها

وقال غُرابٌ جَدَّ مُنهَمِرُ السَّكبِ

He said, “The young gazelle has trotted across them

And a raven has buried what was left from the downpour.”

فإِلّا تَكُن ماتَت فَقَد حَالَ دُونَها

سِواكَ خَليلٌ باطنٌ مِن بَني كَعبِ

Unless she had died, something would have prevented her

Other than you, an intimate friend from the tribe of Ka’b