1. Do you blame me, though passion is blameworthy,
A fault-finder stirred up with blame, hot as live coal in the darkness?

2. She spends the night awakening me, like a blaze in the branches.
She will never be done criticizing me, will never let up her clamor.

3. You fear for me, yet the passionate lover is bold.
And death is a raging bull, given to assault.

4. By her fire, which cannot be hidden,
She is not deterred by charms and spells.

5. Before you, she exhausted the sleepless; leave off blaming me!
Do not deny me justice; be shy of ignorance!

6. Restrain the spying eyes, the prying ears,
The slander, the false imaginings, the prating tongues!

7. Do not spread out on the two couches where lovers lie
The mantle of propriety, if you tear every veil.

8. Seek my touch, and where is my touch?
For reckoning, or for a quarrelsome partisan?

9. One who economizes, or in separation pines?
I have enough, left over from the bonds of youth,

10. And under my shirt, the mantle of manhood,
A care, firmly braced as the straight sword,

11. That wards off the necks of the smooth-necked gazelles
And the lions, the violent beasts of prey,

12. With the blade of the fang, the iron tooth,
That drags them down or lays them out before they are pulled.

13. That is so, though the blamer blamed me
And the old man clucked his tongue at the stubble-chinned youth.

14. I have discarded the words of the lying men;
I do not keep late hours, and Bilal is not my comrade.

15. I make plain to the prince my manners;
He changed my condition and prolonged my delight—

16. The shooter’s dart, speaking of something hard—
And my honor is not on the road to disgrace.

17. As for me, I am Hayyan ibn Dhat al-Qanab;
How strange his affair and mine!

18. As I make plain to the prince my heart,
Because I care so much, care so deeply,

19. Advice that met with the minds’ approbation—
So I said, though the words aroused anger—

20. “By God, by the East and the West,
By the sanctuary of God and the house of seclusion,

21. Where the circumambulator calls out at Mecca,
I met with wonders that roused my wonder.

22. I met with a shining that was like the dog’s drowsiness,
And promises that my friends and I doubted,

23. Like bees doubting the fresh sweet water.
Until I feared that my Lord would take me to task for some wrongdoing.

24. So I hope that when the bonds are loosened,
Before the farewells and the parting of friends,

25. That you will water me from Sib al-Furat’s channel
When a debt bit me—harsh, painful.

26. Leaning on a spear, biting with an arrowhead,
As if the veins of a mullein were slapped with clay—

27. That taking a debt to repay a debt would fatten me up
And worry my shoulder—evil vermin!

28. Though we are noble lions, fierce dragons,
Stripping their enemies after spearing them—

29. Stripping them of the wood’s bark, the wood’s peel—
Until we were left like prey for the wolf.

30. And my jest lighted in a land of scant pasturage,
Cut up between flat land and clefts,

31. Until they cried for help, after lives of scarcity,
From you, who are no mere bag of skin,

32. You, to whom the times offer reproach.
One noble when nobility is chosen,

33. Most generous granter of gifts.
You make some of those who would forbid hang their heads.

34. So do not reject my praise and my elegy,
My desire to join with you, my fuel for your fire.

35. In your rope I do not cease desiring, longing.
To you belongs the bestowal of regular favor.

36. Remember matters whose good is in the outcome.
But if you insist on refusing me,

37. If you put out your malice and ill-will,
And the mill wheel of fate turns without stop,

38. Your power defeats all powers;
Your well-being defeats all well-being;

39. The kindler of the fires of war has come to know
That you reward those you fear and are quick to advance.

40. You seize the shoulders of all the smooth-necked kings
Of the Kurum, the black lions, the violent beasts,

41. With the shears of your fangs, your grinding teeth,
Dragging them down or knocking them flat without dragging.

42. Know that I persist in doing what I must do,
My face not turning from the radiance.

43. The time has come for me to set out, for my friends
To make ready for the land of my people or the mountain paths.

44. I aim to gain the breadth of every plain,
If the Lord of Power wishes.

45. Either with the necks of the swift steeds, the long-necked,
Though the stallion may bolt after settling down,

46. Or avoid a side, avoid a flank,
Every doe-gazelle with a fawn in her belly,

47. With a wonderful belly binding to the loin
A sheep hurrying, near to lambing,

48. A smooth-sided one, nimble, light,
Dusky, with a thick trunk, a thickset foreleg,

49. Shooting an arrow with holes for the bowstring,
With a short quiver, round containers,

50. The croups of the camels, the vile hyenas,
The firm, in the despicable burrows.

51. And perhaps in the night I will shake my mantle
With the two-handed spears, piercing bosoms,

52. Coursing like unleashed hounds,
Spearing like straightened spears.

53. Until the wealth returns after loss,
Whether profit from selling or gain from my hands,

54. From a generous king, more fertile than rain,
Welcoming the guest with spaciousness,

55. Broad in manner, gentle with his horses,
Giving generously, not closefisted,

56. Like the Man of Mishrif, shedding rain in heavy drops.
And perhaps in times of hardship,

57. When safety is feared and ruin dreaded,
You make my sandal stand firm and raise up my heel.

58. Repair my wing that my strength may be straightened!
No feathers of mine have you ruffled.

59. Seal my desires with triumph and gain!
I thank you for your bounty and wet my throat,

60. Immersed and sinking into the trough,
Drinking deep of the fresh, gurgling water.

61. He who hoped in your fresh, fertile rainclouds
Was watered from the rainspouts of spring,

62. And misfortunes fell away from him.