 looked again and looked again and almost felt a sense of sadness over her and i remembered the days of my upbringing there and my infatuation with her with beautiful young women to whom the wise man yearns and i pictured to myself their folding up in annihilation and their being under the ground after our gathering was cut off by dispersion and exile in distant horizons and distant regions and i believed in myself about the annihilation of that monument and the cracking of that egg after what i had known of its beauty and freshness and its adornment and its freshness and its ripening by its separation from the good state and the high rank in which i was adorned in its garments as a child and i listened to the sound of the echo and the owl hooting in it after the movements of that group cracked in its courtyard whose night was in accordance with its day in its spreading out with its inhabitants and the meeting of its inhabitants so its day returned in accordance with its night in calm and loneliness and dimness and fear. this made my eyes cry because of its rigidity and struck my liver because of its hardness and stirred up my confusion because of its multiplication and moved me to speak despite the nobility of my nature so i said 
وكررت النظر، ورددت البصر، وكدت استطار حزنا عليها، وتذكرت أيام نشأتي فيها، وصبابة لداتي بها؛ مع كواعب غيد، إلى مثلهن يصبو الحليم؛ ومثلت لنفسي انطواءهن بالفناء، وكونهن تحت الثرى إثر تقطع جمعنا بالتفرق والجلاء في الآفاق النائية، والنواحي البعيدة، وصدقت نفسي عن فناء تلك النصبة، وانصداع تلك البيضة، بعد ما عهدته من حسنها ونضارتها وزبرجها وغضارتها، ونضوته بفراقها من الحال الحسنة، والمرتبة الرفيعة، التي رفلت في حللها ناشئا فيها، وأرعيت سمعي صوت الصدى والبوم زاقيا بها، بعد حركات تلك الجماعة المنصدعة بعرصاتها، التي كان ليلها تبعا لنهارها، في انتشارها بسكانها، والتقاء عمارها، فعاد نهارها تبعا لليلها في الهدو والاستيحاش، والخفوت والإخفاش. فأبكى ذلك عيني على جمودها، وقرع كبدي على صلابتها، وهاج بلابلي على تكاثرها، وحركني للقول على نبو طبعي؛ فقلت 