1. Since I pitched my tent in the green oasis
And donned the crown with my sandal straps

2. I fancied the sky as my abode
For I made the stars my neighbors

3. When I think of my brethren
I see my elder brothers as smaller

4. As if God had forged greatness
And extracted their glory anew

5. And they only called it “the Green”
Because it was the orbit of their stars

6. While our abode in the Azrāq oasis
Cannot rival the abode of Azrāq

7. We donned its pond with armors
And bared its streams to thirst

8. On a day when, had Al-Kusa’i shot
His bow would have missed its mark

9. In a garden, pretty was its sight
Else why did the doves there shed their plumage?

10. And on its pulpits stood an orator
who stirred the boughs to discourse

11. Which listened rapt and shook
from their mantles, shyer

12. Should the breeze pass by, frail
The trees strive to stand, drunk

13. With a bulk, if its shoulders vied
It would toss the order of stars into chaos

14. The flowers of wild pear bloomed
Yearning for it, so it bowed its head in disdain

15. Though it rose with dignity
The dignity of its family taught it composure

16. That band subdued the nights
And bent them by force to their rule

17. And bore the burden of their glory
So it rose to the sublime as they did

18. Abu ‘Amr ibn Hassoun
Whom the banners do not cloak in dust

19. A lad in years, aged in feats
A child who disguised the elders as small

20. No wonder at his precocity
When horses sire racers

21. And the arrow, subtlest of things
Overtakes the spear, outstripping it