1. I yearn for friends and a spacious home
And I am content to send my greetings with the caravan

2. Were it not for seeking glory I would not have departed
To the land of Ahvaz from the land of Arabs

3. I settled in barren lands though they are dear
And I abandoned fertile soil though humiliation lies in fertility

4. My ambitious spirit has not flagged
Divided halfway between earnestness and play

5. Half my mind is bent on knowledge and its pursuit
Half is concerned with youth and love

6. In beauty lies my dwelling, that splits my anxiety
And rips my heart with avoidance and reproach

7. I cannot forget, I cannot forget our day of parting
When the pain of separation flowed copiously from its nearness

8. When we embraced at the farewell, but in truth
I pressed my heart to my heart from an excess of passion

9. Oh if only the pain of separation had delayed an hour
It passed and my love passed away with it

10. So one who was like me shared a common passion
And was more deserving to meet with a shared affection

11. His eyes shine eastward with tears
While the west flows to the inhabitant of the west

12. I traveled to the tribes with my sword as my intercessor
And my lineage the ally of the religion of God

13. I spent my standing among students
And that which I spent was better than earnings

14. Necessity called me in my estrangement
I carried myself upon a difficult voyage

15. The estrangement of his homeland humiliated Imru al-Qais
And anguished the sister of the Taghlib in her side

16. While my ribs are torn by passion
There is no patience in a reed bent sidewards

17. When war presents itself I become its brother
And when calamities come I become its elder

18. In you lies the cure for the sick of love
And the solace for the anguished from the misery of distress