1. You left me like the shedding of a camel's coat,
A worry that knows no respite or relief.

2. When you came back it was as if
A fever had returned, or fever in al-Fadak.

3. We saw her beauty, musk-scented,
Haughty, vivacious, laughing gaily;

4. She shone brightly in the wing of night,
Rebuke me not for vile deeds or bloodshed,

5. Or for a wretched slave covered in filth
Crouching in the mud like a dung beetle.

6. Pay no heed to the words of a slanderous gossip;
Live piously, devoted to God,

7. Like a cloak tattered by the winds, ripped apart.
I mended it patch by patch, like a dilapidated building

8. Riddled with holes letting in drafts.
With patches crudely stitched from burlap and rags

9. Torn by raging gales and driving rains.
When opponents come like wolves to the fold

10. And I face the adversary’s compelling argument,
Defying the Roman in a contest of wits,

11. Leaving the sly and cunning helpless,
Flustered by strong debate and a formidable rival,

12. By the logic of partisans quick to contend and dispute,
Who make claims, whether truth or falsehood,

13. I speak the shrewd judicious words
That seek the right path between mountains and dales

14. In the smiling landscape and smooth passage;
I say - all kindred are interlinked, like loops in a net -

15. O wise heir of the family of Abdul Malik,
Inheritor of glorious houses crumbling in ruins

16. Of enduring glory and fading splendor,
Of every shameless boaster and false pretender

17. Whose unruly clan is armed to the teeth.
You raised them to the heights of glory

18. To the lofty citadel, the towering height.
To you I complain of the cruelty of fate

19. That has struck me down, left me in tatters,
Ravaged by passing years and destroying time,

20. My joints all disjointed, my knees buckled under me.
We know this for certain, do not doubt it -

21. That you, after God, if you do not forsake us,
Are the key to all we crave and desire;

22. Free us from the prison of so many needs.
You may one day save us from those sorrows;

23. I confess, if you do not love my raptures,
That I remember you, while you reap the rewards,

24. Since your door is barred against me.
Soothe my soul from the anguish of longing;

25. Requite it with sweet perfumes, purer than musk,
With scents more fragrant than camel dung,

26. Though once you rewarded me with the valley's dew,
You were neither barren land nor desert sands.

27. Ever you remain in the sanctuary of time,
Hunting your prey in a whirlwind's rush.

28. The true steed is not like a stubborn mule.