مررتُ على أسرابِ طيركَ وقفاً

فأرسلتُ عقباني إليها تصيدُها

I passed by flocks of your birds standing still,

So I sent my falcons to hunt them down.

فلم تُغنِ عنها في اللقاءِ صفوفُها

ولم تُغنِ عنها في البراز رُدُودُها

But their ranks did not avail them at the encounter,

Nor did their fleeing help them get away.

أكُرُّ على ما فرّ منها كأنَّني

أكرُّ على فرسان حَربٍ أذُودُها

I resented their escaping as if I resented

Knights of war whom I drove away.

فأذكرتني ما قال عاشقُ خِلَّةٍ

بَرى جسمَه هجرانُها وصدودُها

Then I recalled what a lover of Khillah said

When he saw her body shun him and avoid him:

فلو أنَّ ما أبقيت مني مُعلَّقٌ

بعُودِ ثُمامٍ ما تأوَّدَ عُودُها

"If what is left of me were hung

On a tamarisk's twigs, they would not bend under it."