1. The youth cries and the lover stays awake,
Even if the surrounded pigeon does not stir him.

2. My crying, your sleeplessness, and what I said irritated me,
The zephyr of morning and the shining lightning.

3. So my two eyes became bloodshot from weeping,
Until he turns away or tears of grief flow.

4. And nothing but my memory comes over Umaymah,
And the specter of an image from Umaymah knocks.

5. And if it were not for vain hopes rising high,
And from them the soul almost expired.

6. By God my patience - what passion I harbor -
And yearning that makes the heart shut fast.

7. And I surpassed the people of passion with strange ways,
I met in love what they did not meet.

8. If in my time there was a beautiful Jameel,
I would teach him how to love.

9. And I kept complaining of estrangement until the hand of separation stretched over us,
For separation is more calamitous and veiled.

10. Oh, the guardian's eyes have become blind,
Appointed over us, and the slanderer has been given free rein against us.

11. I said before the separation and union brings together
And I fear the work of separation.

12. Our proximity, how good is the union between us
And sweet, were it not that we separate!

13. We rejoice in the days of union but sometimes
The memory of parting passes over us and we separate.

14. I do not forget the day of parting when in the morning,
We complain of passion and our tears flow.

15. The situation of leaving Umaymah decisively
While my sight flashes in the stance of parting.

16. The farewell disturbed between me and her,
Prostrating me, enamored of me, detained and released.

17. She clings to my shoulders and wets my tears
Beware of intimacy and cheek pressed to cheek.

18. Oh, raven of parting, if only you had in the morning
Parted from your beloved, you would not have remained cawing.

19. Oh, camel if only you carried some of my youth
The day of parting, the ground would have slipped under you.

20. And oh, slanderer of us, if you met what
We meet, intricate talk would tire you.

21. The causes of intimacy frayed and the house turned against us
But still we yearn.

22. I long for she of the mantle, without her
A ewe, a guardian, and a desolate plain.

23. I say to her while death lies between me and her
And beyond her is a road, wall, and moat.

24. Oh roe in the belly who set up
Her neck frightened while she spied.

25. And oh full moon in the branches of a flexing forearm
Bending over the soft sand while it shone.

26. And oh object of the heart's need, beyond which
My attachments in the bonds of passion depended.

27. Trust the meaning, that I am not disloyal
To you, and in the captivity of passion I am bound fast.

28. Nothing is lost that I was entrusted with, though it
Documents that stir in my worried breasts.

29. With me are cords of love that grow stronger
With distance, as some ropes are created.

30. And I am still found as you knew me
So our secret does not appear nor love is tasted.

31. For a time forgetfulness keeps me
From speaking between companions and I fall silent.

32. With me are cares that can hardly be dispelled
By talk of the reproachers and old debated issues.

33. I used to in days past of youth,
Though youth has meadows and old age clefts.

34. I justify myself at every task
With some entertainments and youth is burdened.

35. When the wind of chamomile spreads and morning appears
Like the veils of pasture over its flowers crumbling.

36. I went out with the youths or traveled among them
And we woke to the draft of wine and we gulped.

37. Partridges circled about us, Babylonian,
Glittering in their carpets and clapping.

38. And white geese sang to us and repeated
Blossoms that bloom or lutes that flutter.

39. And so, or half fortunes in diversion
Boded ill a time in the land and perspired.

40. Until we sang in the vicinity of Muhammad
So benefit is not withheld and generosity not stinted.

41. Abu Abdallah has spared us our confusion -
We were estranged in earning wealth and radiant.

42. So if drought descended, we flocked to his meadows
A generous heaven whose rivers flow.

43. I found a master skillful in nobility
For I am compelled by his veneration.

44. And I found the provision of God ample with me
Thus I am provided by his hands.

45. He is the lasting master Abu Umar his
Heritage of virtues, proven to fulfill.

46. With his blessed nature he repairs corruption
And provides for the deprived and opens the closed.

47. The flourishing council, oh Ibn Mu'ammar
Has a radiance that struts and hands that shine.

48. I ask my cheek for shyness before his face -
Brilliance, and from the water of cheerfulness, subtlety.

49. He has lasting manners in every state,
When manners disappear from some men.

50. The envious have not reproached any trait in him
Except that he spends wealth freely.

51. They fell short in generosity compared to his expenditure
So they blamed him for the act that is most gracious.

52. It is no extravagance our expenditure by which
High aspirations are attained and the utmost goals reached.

53. Your position is foremost in the House of Yaman their chests,
And your branch in the climax of glory shakes fruit.

54. The light of manners from your brow shining
And water of generosity from your right hand pouring.

55. If you are active in every virtue
Then you are not outstripped in the status of the lofty.

56. And you Abu Abdallah Muhammad
Are mightiest in rank and most prominent.

57. So live in an ascending domain that has no
Equals, and a pleasant life that does not waste away.

58. And holidays have returned to you in security and purpose
While you are fulfilled and accomplished.

59. With assured justice the eminent have been delighted
And have become eminent in your praise in its verses.

60. They have refined it in diction, meaning and composition
And perfected the rhetorical embellishment adorning it.

61. So it came giving joy to listeners as
Jarir enchanted or al-Farazdaq enchanted.

62. So perfume your reputation's dress with it, it is
A sweet praise that its diffusion with you is fragrant.

63. And distinguish your proud steeds with it, it is
A necklace of glory that its stringing with you is firm.

64. And shine through it with kings, for I
Boast with my praise of you when I am most sincere.

65. And protect my poetry and guard it for it
Is envied, borrowed and stolen.

66. And an imitator may seek far-fetched similes
And swim in the current of my poetry and drown.