1. My eyes know no sleep after you,
Though miles apart we may be.

2. You who rouse longing in me and flood my tears-
Whatever visions you send float before my eyes.

3. You've denied my lids your image-
How can memory and fantasies be denied?

4. A day between you my heart is torn,
Its blood spilt recklessly in passion's name.

5. Mornings of intimacy make you smile
While my eyes in the dark of night are occupied.

6. The horizon becomes a prayer niche where I kneel,
The stars- lamps lit in its corners.

7. Only my tears, as I remember you,
Hold back my love like a dam.

8. How many blame my torment!
Little is said, though warnings abound.

9. Bedecked is she with patience feigning promise-
Her vows are naught but lies.

10. Quenching the pledge of youth and nearby homes,
Kin brought close and circles joined complete.

11. The days of old for which yearning remains
Unlike these elongated days.

12. Why not delight in the life once lived
Bound as it was to pleasure?

13. If blame distressed me the sword of time
Drawn at my head would give me fright- but

14. Hoary locks have sprouted signals
To guide me if my youth would heed.

15. Forty years old and the mind persists
In empty excuses and ploys.

16. So I care not for jest nor play
When tomorrow I will pay the price.

17. I have happiness enough in plaintive song
Be it real or be it my imagination.

18. I weep from longing though she is my murderess!
Did ever one weep for their killer slain?

19. Musk is the cheek mole, roses and gardens
Plucked by people's eyes without cease.

20. When wafts from her cheek's horizon sweet scent
Interwoven with rosewater is the musk.

21. Parted from lips so sweet to taste
Like bees' harvest o'er times of yore.

22. Corrector of copies, of nectar and of cool wine
Since from it the spirit flows unbound.

23. Lightning from the tree trunk's heights distracted me
Till tears fell upon coral in torrents.

24. Reminding me of the golden faces of maidens, gifts sent
Jewels in boxes for the beloved piled high.

25. To al-‘Aqīq- O good scent of Ṭayba, is there
A necklace in my words for your singer to relay?

26. Will I see the carrier of my hopes as though I
Were transported by yearning nearby?

27. If I have not the work I hope for salvation
I have from the Messenger, God willing, its attainment.

28. Sufficient for me is praising God's Messenger-refuge indeed
When objections bar all other paths.

29. I say- and fate is supreme though it be assailed-
Connection is possible though words fall short.

30. What can poets say in praise this day
After having lauded the plain revelation?

31. Articulating merit in scripts foremost
Whether Torah or Bible in every age.

32. Muḥammad is the meaning infused in his being
No clay of Adam's remains once his soul was shaped.

33. The chosen one, his sublime crown no crown of stars
Nor diadem of moon can equal it.

34. Without him there would be no land, no horizon
No age, no people, and no generation.

35. No ritual a guiding star or dwelling
Wherein revelation could make its descent.

36. Wonders he has that even the sorcerer-king
Could not overcome-no, nor the elephant horde!

37. If he tore the hall of Kisra fearfully
Proof indeed the unbelievers' might has crumbled.

38. If the fiery hearths' flames have died down
The sea draws back its hems folded in retreat.

39. The trustworthy prophet, his sword gleaming
As if a polished Indian blade ready to smite.

40. Blessed orphan with jewel-like qualities
Strung together from revelation's threads revealed.

41. Still he has standing and servants among men
Though his famed attendant is Gabriel.

42. Of immaculate heart, without blemish or stain-
How not, when he is washed with the water of life eternal?

43. Waging war in God's cause with awesome calm
When squadrons rushed not even the valiant Abābīl.

44. As though the notched arrows of their past and future
Have ready records and scripts prepared against the unjust.

45. Like grapevines- boasting or glorying in naught
Lest flung stones make them barren and bare.

46. By night resounds their glorification
Without any frenzy near death's threshing floors.

47. They are a house of intimacy awaiting favor
As the Prophet gave meaning and completion.

48. A people- when their steeds prance in joy
Their standards seem as though soft silk kerchiefs.

49. Scribes, from their bodies I considered
Dusky and fair, dotted and fringed too.

50. Where pigeons are scrumptious though made of patience
Plucked- blessed then is separation, my loves!

51. Until faith's pillar stood straight and paths of guidance opened
While error's ways were eclipsed.

52. The saving soul that raced to the doors
Of his glory the soul of revelation-Gabriel.

53. Eloquent, when it narrates the ṣād sincerely
Virtues then have arrangement and modulation.

54. A ceaseless darner fearing not poverty his palm,
Those who praise his gifts, say:

55. And what are speeches, be they long or short,
Except verse over which the meters have no reign?

56. Protector of the House's sanctuary, fearsomly advancing-
Neither hosts of Abrahah nor the elephant could rival it.

57. In darkness and in light his rising shines
Blessed indeed is the niche's oil lamp!

58. He stood in his House's shadow casting spears-
Blessed indeed is this decor's completion!

59. The one for whom sanctuary's niche was appointed
Not those useless figures and forms.

60. And from the Basra meads for every protector
A streaming cup-white, overflowing and brimming full.

61. While every land in which gardens flower
For the faithful deliverance deferred or hastened.

62. And each religious community bound falsely
Is quenched- for the priest then a lamp,

63. For the Jew along with the darkening sorcery of blindness illumination-
The Magian too has a fine collyrium!

64. Until an Arab came, shining bright by whom
To guide them- Muḥammad, God's sword drawn!

65. How many a miracle of the Messenger thwarted
The foe-God's enemy is failed and defeated!

66. The pure liquid overflowed from his fingers
Blessed fingers!- and from his palms the Nile did flow!

67. Blessed is the food those hands did touch
Making it allowable to imbibe or feed upon.

68. Beasts of the wild drew near submissively addressing him
Sweet the words from that eloquent speaker!

69. Attaining the sublime while the two bow-lengths distant or even nearer
Hinting to him subtly the highest station.

70. For shyness the Pegasus did not advance-
A foot whose destiny transcendence mimetically tells.

71. Of Sidrat al-Muntahā- You, my aspiration's end,
None can equal you, seals of envoys embodied!

72. O Seal of Envoys, the sinful tomorrow depend
Upon your sublime intercession- hopes invested fully!

73. If, like Ka‘b, what your guest said proves true
A lodger at the door of Paradise I'll be.

74. Would that one like Ibn Zuhayr had words to solace me
Their springtime from the clouds' nearness pouring down.

75. If named for Zuhayr's manner, perhaps it soars
To the celestial sphere through metaphoric depiction.

76. Excuse my ineptitude, aspiring to your glory
Which along with your gifts shines, evincing.

77. Blessings upon you by the King who granted you such intercessory station
Acceptable at Judgment's Station when we are called before God.

78. You are refuge for us, in life and thereafter
To seek you out, in both abodes the roads overflow with pilgrims.