سَلِ المَنازِلَ كَيْفَ صَرْمُ الوَاصِلِ

أَمْ هَلْ تُبِينُ رُسُومُهَا لِلسَّائِلِ

Ask the abodes how the arriver fared,

Or did their features show aught to the questioner?

عَرَّجْتُ أَسْأَلُهَا بِقَارِعَةِ الغَضَا

وكَأنَّهَا أَلْوَاحُ سَيْفٍ ثَامِلِ

I wandered asking them with the knocking of the heavy rain,

As if they were tablets of a drawn sword.

أَوْرَدَ حِمْيَرُ بَيْنَهَا أَخْبَارَهَا

بِالحِمْيَرِيَّةِ في كِتَابٍ ذَابِلِ

The donkeys recited their news amongst them

In donkey fashion in a withered scroll,

بِالخَلِّ تَقْتَسِمُ الرِّيَاحُ تُرَابَهَا

تَسْفِي عَلَيْهَا مِنْ صَباً وشَمَائِلِ

With vinegar the winds share their dust,

Blowing on them from Sabbah and changeful blowing.

لِلرِّيحِ والأَمْطَارِ مَا سَبَقَا بِهِ

ومَا تَرَكْنَ فَمِنْ نَصِيبِ الخَابِلِ

To the winds and rains belongs what they already carried away

And what remains is the share of the destroyer.

تَرْعَى الفَلاَةَ بِهَا أَوَابِدُ رُتَّعٌ

نُبْلٌ هَجَائِنُ مِثْلُ ذَوْدِ القَافِلِ

Ruined abodes in the wilderness are pastured

By a tribe armed with weapons like the waist ropes of a caravan.

يَلْقَيْنَ آرَامَ الشَّقِيقِ وعُفْرَهُ

كَالْوَدْعِ أَصْبَحَ في مَنَشِّ السَّاحِلِ

They meet the rush of dawn and dusk

Like the farewell, become in the shore-man's anchorage

مَاذَا تَذَكَّرُ مِنْ وِصَالِ غَرِيبَةٍ

طَالَتْ إِقَامَتُهَا بِخَلِّ الحَائِلِ

What does it remember of the sojourn of a strange woman

Whose stay amongst the separating sands was long?

لِفَتَاةِ جُعْفِيٍّ لِيَاليَ تَجْتَنِي

ثَمَرَ القُلُوبِ بِجِيدِ آدَمَ خَاذِلِ

Of nights with a Ju‘fi maiden who picked

The fruit of hearts with languid fingers.

عَجَبَتْ لِيَ الجُعْفِيَّةُ ابْنَةَ مِالِكٍ

أَنْ شَابَ أَصْدَاغِي وأَقْصَرَ بَاطِلي

The Ju‘fi girl wondered at me, daughter of Malik,

That my cheeks grew young and the false one cut short.

ولَقَدْ تَحَيَّنَتِ الصِّبَا وطِلاَبَهُ

لِتِبَاعَةِ المَتْبُولِ عِنْدَ التّابِلِ

Indeed did time spy out me and its turning

For following the slowly moving one at the cooking pots.

وخَطِيبِ أَقْوَامٍ عَبَأْتُ لِنَارِهِ

مَطَرِي فَأَطْفَأَهَا بِدِيمَةِ وَابِلِ

And for wooing a people I provided for his fire

A rain-pourer but it put it out with heavy downpour.

ولَقَدْ تَعَسَّفَتْ الفَلاَةَ بِجَسْرَةٍ

قَلِقٍ

Indeed the wilderness presumed against Jasrah,

Disturbing its foetuses or partitioning it.

حُشُوشُ جَنِينِهَا أَوْ حَائِلِ

أَجُدٍ كَأَنَّ صَرِيفَ أَخْطَبِ ضَالَةٍ

I find it as if the twilight of a straying old she-camel

Were between es-Sadees and the west of el-Bazil.

بَيْنَ السَّدِيسِ وبَيْنَ غَرْبِ البَازِلِ

سُرُحِ العَنِيقِ إِذَا تَرَفَّعَتِ الضُّحَى

Release the she-camel when dawn rises high

Bearing a heavy burden and tottering with it.

هَدَجَ الثَّفَالِ بِحِمْلِهِ المُتَثَاقِلِ

فَكَأَنَّ رَحْلِي فَوْقَ أَحْقَبَ قَارِبٍ

So my riding beast is as if above the hump of a listing boat

From what is awakened by a moaner and then tossed about.

مِمَّا يَقِيظُ بِأَظْرُبٍ فَيُرَامِلِ

عَضَّاضِ أَعْرَافِ الحَمِيرِ شُتَامَةٍ

Biting the livers of the donkeys, a Shutaamah viper,

And their bellies the deed of the hissing cobra,

ومُتُونِهَا فِعْلَ الفَنِيقِ الصَّائِلِ

قَصَّامِ أَوْسَاطِ السَّفَى مُتَعَلِّقٍ

Clinging to the shoulders of the mean folk, hanging,

Its burden with the harvest of a molar-toothed asp,

أَرْسَاغُهُ بِحَصَادِ عِرْبٍ نَاصِلِ

سَوَّافِ أَبْوَالِ الحَمِيرِ مُحَشْرِجٍ

Making the waters of the donkeys gush forth, a Mashrijah adder,

Water from the veins of the jetting one.

مَاءَ السَّوَافي مِنْ عُرُوقِ السَّاعِلِ

وإِذَا رَأى الوُرَّادَ ظَلَّ بِأَسْقُفٍ

And when the water-carrier saw a shade cover

With a roof like the day of high-peaking ‘Urubah,

يَوْماً كَيَوْمِ عَرُوبَةَ المُتَطَاوِلِ

وَرَّادُ أَعْلَى دَحْلَ يَهْدِجُ دُونَهَا

And the water-carrier at the top of Dahl cries out beneath it

A near approach making it complete with a fifth,

قَرَباً يُوَاصِلُهُ بِخِمْسٍ كَامِلِ

يُوفي اليَفَاعَ إِذَا تَقَاصَرَ ظِلًّهُ

Fulfilling the Yafa‘ when its shade diminishes

So he lingers in it like the Rabbi arguing,

فَيَظَلُّ فِيهِ كَالرَّبِيِّ المَاثِلِ

حَتَّى يُخَالِفَهُمْ وقَدْ حَجَبَ الدُّجَى

Until the glooms oppose them, and dark has hidden

Aside from the forms, the superfluities of dangling things,

دُونَ الشُّخُوصِ إِلى فُضُولِ ثَمَائِلِ

يَعْدُو النِّجَادَ إِذَا تَغَمَّرَ شُرْبَهُ

The pack-camel gallops when its drinking plunges

Deep, and that is of the nature of the plunger.

غَلَساً وذلِكَ مِنْ جَوَازِ النَّاهِلِ

تَلقَى بِجَنْبِ السَّعْدِ مِنْ وَضَحَاتِهِ

It meets by Sa‘d some of its clear ones,

Rushing madly between overfalls and flash floods,

شُذَّانَ بَيْنَ ضَوَامِرٍ وأَوَابِلِ

يَقِصُ الإِكَامَ بِسِرْطِمٍ مُتَحَادِبٍ

Picking its way down the Ikaam pass with lofty sides,

A smooth mountain road whose middle parts are like the head-ropes of a camel-litter.

سَبِطٍ بِطَانَتُهُ كَسِبْتِ النّابِلِ

صَخِبٌ كَأَنَّ دُعَاءَ عَبْدَ مَنَافَةٍ

Clamour like the call of ‘Abd Manafah

Is in its head above the morning of heavy downpour.

في رَأْسِهِ عَقِبَ الصَّبَاحِ الجَافِلِ