1. لَمّا رَأَيتُ اللَيلَ مُنشَقَّ الحُجُب

    عَن سائِلِ الغُرَّةِ مَشهورِ النُقُب

    When I saw the night with its veils rent,

    Revealing a streaming white blaze, its openings laid bare,

  2. نازَلتُ عُصمَ الوَحشِ عَنّا مِن كَثَب

    مِن كُلِّ أَحوى اللَونِ مُبيَضِّ الذَنَب

    I confronted the white-footed wild goats a short distance from us,

    Of every dark-hued, white-tailed kind.

  3. يَهتَزُّ عِندَ الشَدِّ بَل وَالمُنجَذَب

    هَزَّكَ بِالكَفِّ حُساماً ذا شُطَب

    It quivers in charging—indeed, in drawing back too—

    As you shake a keen, grooved sword in your palm.

  4. كَأَنَّما يَطرِفُ مِن بَينِ الهُدُب

    بِجَمرَتَي نارٍ بِكَفِّ مُحتَطِب

    As though it blinks from between its lashes

    With two fiery embers in a wood-gatherer's palm.

  5. ما كانَ إِلّا جَولَةَ الأُروى الشَغِب

    وَوَثبَةَ التَيسِ بِأَقراحِ الحَدَب

    There was only the restless she-goats' circling

    And the buck's leap across the hills' bare patches,

  6. حَتّى اِنثَنى مُختَضِباً وَما خُضِب

    مِن مَغرِزِ الزَورِ إِلى عَجبِ الذَنَب

    Before it turned back bloodstained, though undyed,

    From the base of its chest to the root of its tail.