1. Do you grieve for the departure though they are neighbors,
How would it be if the homes took them far away?

2. And you left with yearning in your breasts for them,
A heart that travels with the caravans wherever they went.

3. And the covenants with Sulaima were severed,
And its neighborly relations and familial ties were cast away.

4. And it became such that no imagination visits it,
Prohibited by the lover, no longer to be visited.

5. So oh how endless is your ardent longing
For an abode stronger in love, and a house.

6. You yearn when it appears from afar, passionately,
Whether a figure or a fire lit from it.

7. May God water Al-Aqeeq even if
Yearnings for it have torn me apart.

8. For in the dunes of that sand is a gazelle,
Strange whom the does have not befriended.

9. It hunts and is not hunted, and its glances
Hit their mark but it is not hit - it has no vengeance.

10. It has a waist around which epochs revolve,
And hips which narrow wraps cannot contain.

11. It has no affection or union,
Nor do I have composure or patience.

12. So oh tears of one slain by ardent love,
Fallen in passion whose blood violent pours forth.

13. An ailment that has no remedy,
A helpless one whose shackles cannot be undone.

14. I lean as I recall the passion and longing,
As the spyglass leaned towards its observer.

15. And I am joyous as I yearn for it, with a joy,
When its short nights are remembered.

16. While the critic berates me for my destitution,
For the raiment of poverty is no shame.

17. I who am not one terrified by estrangement,
Nor freed by homeland and abode.

18. Rather I count the nights,
And at their culmination, the fruits will be sweet.

19. I am not in destitution while bounty exists,
Lest scarcity at times of ease makes me woeful.

20. I know time in a way that to me
Wealth and poverty are equal.

21. For the camels of hopes I have progeny,
While pregnant they pay a tithe.

22. The full moon - nothing of it appears to my eyes -
Its emergence has been so long concealed.

23. Are not its pillars tired, its burdens exhausting,
Have not its containers thirsted, so they take from my tears,

24. The shells of eggs and the honey of bees?
If you do not seek glory in your youth,

25. Will you desire it when gray hairs have sprouted?
Why do I grieve when the abodes are desolate,

26. With no kinship to delight, nor neighborhood?
Though I may summon strength and a heart

27. Which circumstances cannot make lose courage.
I roamed the land which casts off my aspirations,

28. And the wastes deserted me, denying acknowledgement.
I seek, like the glory of faith, a companion,

29. In calamities, a refuge sought.
And a comfort from it more fresh,

30. When the winters have solidified into ice.
I proceed ahead of it in fright,

31. When even heroes hurry to flee.
I find in it a broader arena and abode,

32. When homes become too narrow for their inhabitants.
It guaranteed to show the land benevolence,

33. While the delusive clouds did not fulfill.
It swore to subjugate the dark nights,

34. No calamities frightening it into flight.
When the gazes adorned themselves with it they cast down,

35. In awe of its reverence they blinked away.
So it returns them in sorrow without sight,

36. With the lids of their eyes it has blinded them.
It is gentle in humility, yet also lofty,

37. Presenting its hand in greeting, yet also able.
If at night it boasts of glory,

38. The most esteemed glory does not flatter itself.
The treasures of wealth evade it,

39. Yet people and carpenters have let it down.
Some are named misguided in the kingdom,

40. Except for you - that name is a false loan.
I forbid them even if they exert themselves,

41. And their selves even if they are enraged, the insignificant.
They thought they had become kings,

42. When they are but people of merchandise and trade.
A brow which no crown illuminates,

43. A palm which no bracelet befits.
How many fierce, valiant raids,

44. In each limb are gaps and wounds.
They provoke in the hearts of the people turmoil,

45. Almost making the sparks fly among them.
When the concealer among them reveals it with a garment,

46. It becomes in the morning a torn, tattered cover.
The hearts of the horsemen are almost blown away in shock,

47. If only it had wings to fly.
You met it with wisdom, not in foolishness,

48. And resolve which no delusions make fail.
So you steered its calamities, and for it are wings,

49. And extinguished its fire, though it has kindling.
Its leaders subdued, dispersed,

50. Vagrants whom no dust storm can dishevel.
Are you not of those who have illumination

51. When the swords gleam and the blades are bared?
When they attend war they are ferocious lions,

52. And if asked for help they are seas full.
And if the valleys of gloom become straitened they endure,

53. Vigilant, and if darkness falls they illuminate.
And if they intend a distant goal they attain it,

54. And if witnessing aggressions they deter.
In their palms ascend glories,

55. While above them the full moons circle.
They have kindness to offenders, spacious,

56. Customs of refinement, even when intoxicated.
Faces like suns radiating light,

57. And manners when day has dawned clear.
Dreams, that when calamities boil,

58. Settle, upon them tranquility and dignity.
They are the star which if a straying traveller loses his way,

59. Its light guides him - they are the minaret.
The whiteness of the swords points to them,

60. When the fires signal upon the generous.
Father of al-Faraj, listen to my praise

61. Of others - it cannot be sold or borrowed.
For you strings of pearls were composed, and in it

62. About others than you there is unwillingness.
It remains at your homes, residing in them nightly,

63. Circling, as if in pilgrimage and devotion.
It goes to your hospitality, while in it

64. Is aversion from others, and hesitation.
Chinstraps which enchant the hearts, until

65. Listlessness and confusion are imagined.
It is the excellent, unsaddled she-camel, whose bride-price

66. Is little, whose deceptions are those of the virgins.
You remain throughout time with the eternity of a king,

67. Through your command the revolving sphere circles.
The nights obey you in their circumstances,

68. For you is the judgement among them and the choice.
For you is the extended lifetime, and for the enemies,

69. Even if their eagerness sharpens into depravity.