وَلَمّا لَحِقنا بِالحَمولِ وَدونُها

خَميصُ الحَشا توهي القَميصَ عَواتِقُه

When we reached the fields, their skirts trailing,

The shirt of mourning seemed to don its shoulders.

قَليلُ قَذى العَينَينِ يَعلَمُ أَنَّهُ

هُوَ المَوتُ إِن لَم تُلقَ عَنّا بَوائِقُه

A little dust in the eyes reveals

That it is death, if its folds do not slip from us.

عَرَضنا فَسَلَّمنا فَسَلَّمَ كارِهاً

عَلَينا وَتَبريحٌ مِنَ القَيظِ خانِقُه

We put ourselves forward, so he greeted us reluctantly,

His greeting choking us with the noonday heat.

فَسايَرتُهُ مِقدارَ ميلٍ وَلَيتَني

بِكُرهي لَهُ ما دامَ حَيّاً أُرافِقُه

I walked with him a mile, and would that I

Had never accompanied him throughout his life.

فَلَمّا رَأَت أَلّا وِصالَ وَأَنَّهُ

مَدى الصَرمِ مَضروبٌ عَلَينا سُرادِقُه

When she saw there was no consummation, and that

Over us the canopy of fate was pitched,

رَمَتني بِطَرفٍ لَو كَمِيّاً رَمَت بِهِ

لَبُلَّ نَجيعاً نَحرُهُ وَنَبائِقُه

She glanced at me with an eye whose dart,

Had it been an arrow, would have pierced his throat and jugular;

وَلَمعٍ بِعَينَيها كَأَنَّ وَميضَهُ

وَميضُ الحَيا تُهدى لِنَجدٍ شَقائِقُه

With a lightning flash in her eyes, whose gleam

Was like the lightning-flash over Nedjd's meadows.