قَد أَغتَدي قَبلَ طُلوعِ الشَمسِ

بِأَحجَنِ الخَطمِ كَمِيِّ النَفسِ

Before dawn's light I roamed

I venture forth before the rising sun,

With breaths short and restless

With a hook-beaked hawk, a valiant one,

غَرثانَ إِلّا أَكلَهُ بِالأَمسِ

آنَسَ بِالطَمسِ وَماءِ الطَمسِ

A lamb bleating save to be eaten yesterday

Famished, save for his meal of yesterday,

It delighted in twilight and the twilight rain

He marks the traces and the liquid spray,

كَنَظَرِ المَجنونِ أَو ذي المَسِّ

حَتّى إِذا أَقصَدَ بَعدَ الحَبسِ

Like a madman's gaze or one possessed

With a gaze like a madman, or one possessed,

Until when after confinement

Till, let loose, he strikes with fatal zest,

عِشرينَ مِن حُبارِياتٍ قُعسِ

مِثلَ النَصارى في ثِيابٍ طُلسِ

Twenty priestesses marched

Twenty bustards, with their backs arched high,

Like Christians in yellow robes

Like Christian monks in robes of dusty dye,

فَهُنَّ بَينَ أَربَعٍ وَخَمسِ

صَرعى وَمُستَدمٍ أَميمِ الرَأسِ

There they were between four and five

Thus they lie in groups of four and five,

Slain and bloodied, heads shorn

Slain, or bleeding, scarcely left alive,

وَحَرِبٍ يَشفِنُ بَعدَ التَعسِ

كَأَنَّما صَبَغتَها بِوَرسِ

And wars that exhale anguish after misery

And the stricken glares after its demise,

As though you dyed them with madder

As if you had dyed it with saffron dyes.