1. The songs of the common people are good songs
Like springtime is to the year

2. Yet the Arab youth amongst them
Is a stranger in face, hand, and tongue

3. The gardens are places of play, where
Even Solomon would need a translator

4. Our horses and knights relaxed there
Until I feared that even the noble may err

5. We marched at dawn, the branches shaking
Above their fences like locusts swarming

6. I walked as the sun was veiled from me
And the light was obscured, giving me what sufficed

7. The east cast on my clothes from it
Gold coins scattering from the mint

8. It has fruits that beckon you
With drinks though lacking cups

9. It has clear waters that join together
The tinkling of jewelry on the wrists of beautiful maidens

10. If Damascus folded up its reins
It would be the piebald steed with the smooth neck

11. The brief visitor whose fires were kindled
With smoke rising, hospitable

12. It settles on a courageous heart
And departs from a cowardly soul

13. Abodes from which a specter never ceased
To accompany me to Nubia

14. When the doves coo, the leaves responding
With the songs of the cranes

15. And who needs the common people more than a dove
When it coos and moans for the deserts

16. The two descriptions may coincide entirely
While the two described are far apart

17. They say the horses of Buwaan are my horses
As if to wound me with their spears

18. Your father Adam taught sins
And to leave gardens

19. So I said, when I saw the courageous father
I asked about creatures and places

20. People and the world are a road
To One who has no equal among people

21. I trained myself to speak of them
Like training a mule without reins

22. With the strength of the state it gained might and glory
And none but the mighty have power

23. No seizing the wandering eggs
Or share of the slippery fish

24. It called them at the havens of limbs
For the day of war, early or late

25. So no shroud is named loss
And no shroud hints at loss

26. Its virtues cannot be fathomed
Nor described, even seen

27. I tame people with soil and fear
While my father’s land grants safety

28. It suppresses thieves, condemning all sins
And protects swords from every criminal

29. If asked for deposits in trust
They are given to the bedouins and sheepherders

30. They spent the night above them unclaimed
Crying, "Can you not see me!"

31. Every bright-faced noble youth aspires to it
Deaf to every silent beckoning fool

32. Neither its splendor nor generous wealth
Are diminished by disgrace

33. A horseman defends the land of the brave
Urgent for self-sacrifice

34. With a blow that stirred the resolve of fate
Except the stroke of three and eight

35. As if the blood of skulls in the meadows
Were a robe of finches worn by the land

36. If hearts were exposed there
They would not fear the piercing eyes

37. I have not seen cubs like his cubs
Or a filly like his filly

38. Most eager to take after their noble origin
And most resembling the face of the snarling lion

39. Hearing the most in his gatherings
So-and-so pierced his spear in so-and-so

40. The first sight they comprehended
Was the nobility they clung to early on

41. The first words they understood and spoke
Were to help a screaming victim or free a prisoner

42. You were the sun blinding all eyes
So how could two suns appear

43. They lived a life like that of two moons
Lit by their glow, not envious of each other

44. They did not rule but over the enemies
And did not inherit but those they killed

45. They were as bountiful to an enemy
As the extra Ya letters in my verses

46. A prayer like praise without elegy
Carried by heavens to heavens

47. So I have been angry with him
While you have been angry with me

48. If not for you, the people would be
Nonsense, like speech devoid of meaning