1. To Khartoum after exile
And after the wear of glorious youth

2. And Khartoum is not my home except that I
An exile wherever my mount halted

3. An exile in my country I shall perish
A mirage in its prairies my exile

4. And I preferred the book over a friend
Who sees me with sorts of lies

5. And I befriended the book where emerges
The forehead of God in the fearful darkness

6. It tells me of nobles who turned
Like predatory packs of wolves

7. I love the Nile with a current that surges
And lashes its banks with eddies

8. I heard her weeping while life was still fresh
Afflicting me with hopes of torment

9. And her weeping gave me pride while life was still fresh
Afflicting me with hopes of torment

10. And I was content in my home’s seclusion
From passions and wrath’s turbulence

11. And from forms of ugliness that donned
Face covers without veils

12. I love the Nile roaring then its
Raging channels sobbing in torrents

13. And between the palms in the thickets is dishevelment
Wandering with dusk to gather firewood

14. And I sensed lightning like a whip splitting the
Gloom between heaped clouds

15. I love the Nile when it clears and the
Trills of nightingales echo from the bluffs

16. The north wind carries it on a sail
Like the flowing tresses of a gallant steed