1. He recalled Najd, so he sighed with yearning,
And the lightning made him restless when it flared up.

2. His youthfulness killed his patience,
And he thought he would die with forbearance.

3. And passion oppressed him, so his tears sought refuge—
When he could not find any other refuge.

4. We stopped—so how many roving flashes
That redden the rose of the cheeks with burning!

5. And a dark night, when it tries the murk of separation,
Kills me with the abundance of tears and anguish.

6. They find fault with me because of their steeds,
And show me the rose and narcissus.

7. And if they blame a fault or absence
From righteousness, disgrace does not shame me.

8. For a lover’s betrayal is the blackness of censure,
When love strips off from him the mantle of honor.

9. And far be it for the passionate youth that it be said
He disobeyed his passion and obeyed dignity!

10. And an early rain, when the south winds avoid it,
You would think the gentle rain comes after the rain.

11. You see the lightning smile secretly at it
When the thunder laments loudly because of it.

12. When its cloud cover turns hostile and threatens it,
Its lightning flares up and flies high.

13. The breeze contends with it in the air
And sprinkles small pearls in the meadow.

14. The meadows almost march toward it
When the water flows in it and walks.

15. At times it cleaves the bosoms of shyness,
At others it wipes away the abundant tears.

16. As if the prince lent the zephyr
His attributes, and they donned the borrowed robes.

17. It is the rain which a land sings for,
While another yearns for it out of need.

18. Its clouds hands are abundant,
Pouring freely and innovating generously.

19. And a seller, when the day of meeting is prolonged,
Leaves a people’s lifetimes short.

20. And it will not frighten the sword until it sees
Water and fire on the sword’s blade.

21. Abu al-Hasan, you chose the excellence of praise,
And one like you chooses excellently.

22. And how many abodes of enemies you have trodden
Defiantly, though you sought the abodes.

23. With a night that extends its hem over them
And a day that casts its hem back from them.

24. And you rose among them like stars of the bow—
They do not set when the star sets.

25. And the day of al-Mada’in, when you visited it,
While the dust prevented it from being visited.

26. And your steeds plunged into its blood there,
Though first the dust came stirring it up.

27. So if Ctesiphon with its archway
Had gifted its ceiling to you, it would have collapsed.

28. You let the spears drink blood, so they bent over
Like sniffers when they have drunk a poison draft.

29. They falter when the enemies walk proudly
And stumble in every throat passage.

30. And how many kings you had agreed with
To avoid them, and they died wary.

31. You raced, outstripping the winds,
And surpassed in rivalry those you competed with.

32. You avoided, so you lived alongside the Euphrates,
When you had been alongside the Tigris before.

33. So you were kept safe from a reproach
That permits humiliation and protects the honored.

34. A rain that pours freely when the rain is stingy,
And a lion that rages when the leopard flares up.

35. And it has overcome Tughlib when it marched in Tughlib,
You heard the clashing of spear tips.

36. The rhymes of praise envy it,
And refuse if you gaze except to excel.

37. A rhyme that has not been
Adorned by his achievements has no right to envy.

38. A roving lightning reminded me of its gleam,
Lighting the night’s darkness until it illuminated.

39. And it passed by the meadow like the passing of a libertine,
Singing and dragging its lower garment in it.

40. So I was certain I would obey the resolve
And disobey the passion, going wherever it went.

41. The marches called you, and they had seen
A slaughter you would survive and ravages you would endure.

42. And after you a delegation of praise met
A barren wasteland and arid desert.

43. They say, “If a crisis comes,
Will we find that dew or dust?”

44. For them the place is no place
When you are absent, nor is the house a house.