1. My night grew long as I watched for the dawn
Eagerly awaiting the morn’s first light

2. After Layla’s passing, I suffered then healed
Neither turning nor racing away, O Prince

3. My patience took flight, yet my patience was not blamed
When it struggled with fading beauty

4. She promised and granted me eternity from her
“I may come to you or arrive shortly”

5. But if union does not come to you
Except as miserliness or disgraced humbleness

6. Or like the tears of al-Muthamid after stopping them
A torrent of tears that does not cease gushing

7. The connection you desire from me has sailed away
And small matters can gain big ones

8. It made us and our people live in a dugout
We thought time and years were months

9. So we felt safe and that deceived us until
Time crept up on us, changed

10. Time has violent nature, so beware it
Do not spend night feeling safe from eras

11. A healthy young man may fall ill and one who slept safely
May awake aggrieved

12.
Time is really soft and supple

13. Leaving the bone feeble and broken
So ask the people, where are the clans of Qubais?

14. Time has wiped them out before
Death seized him as he hoped for more life

15. While he wore a crown, making lions and beasts tremble
And the noble yellow-robed kings

16. Of Rome, none remains mentioned
So rouse a soul to righteousness before demise

17. For demise is to haunt tombs
Do not, out of ignorance, sleep your days away

18. And recall past admonitions
And make your soul excuse-worthy in innocence

19. And flexible, easing difficulty
O you who seek the path of salvation

20. Make righteousness conscious in your heart
Your day is almost done, so know

21. Which of your two days will go
I see death precedes death in no way

22. Death has soured the rich and poor
It seizes the deluded eternal one and returns

23. The birds in the nests, driving them out
Where, where to flee what will come?

24. I see no bird escaped its flight
O oblivious sleeping one, see!

25. Lest you be the misguided, fooled one
Leave your soul its passions to protect

26. Lest you be the rushed, ruined one
Where are our fathers, when we still

27. Hope for eternity after them, deluded?
With each day’s passing, death is afoot

28. Each day we see it barren
How many healthy ones today will walk

29. And tomorrow be a lifeless form interred?
And a blood-drenched corpse

30. Ripped open by the claws of war's vultures
War has intensified horrifically

31. Leaving this tall, arrogant one demolished
So walk deliberately when you walk, and see

32. For in moderation there is a path and bridges
In moderation there is good for man

33. And an easy way for the weak