1. The gazelles graze by the yellow sand dune
Your tears streamed down on the day of the rocky slope

2. You came while those around you shunned you
Beware of slanderers and a laughing scorner

3. They bruise ruby with hail but rather
They exact vengeance from the roses of the red cheeks

4. And if parting does wrong in its actions
Its wrongdoing was in the finest spectacle

5. She traveled and I smelled her trail of glory
And passion was assured of an uncovered share from her

6. Then she donned the veil of modesty, so it informed me
While her gardens were not liable for disclosure

7. Do not deny the agony of the ardent lover
For this day of agony did not come unexpectedly from him

8. My glances recoiled from his eyelids and clung
To his heart with the staring of frightened gazelles

9. And perhaps she frowns while his breast holds
Whatever it wishes of the glowing embers

10. So over long dark nights, is my despair? Or over
What is past of a life sweeter than candied fruit?

11. Ruins must gaze upon our homeland
Syria, with every disheveled dusty ruin

12. I did not feel safe staying in my homeland
So I feared it between close and remote meadows

13. When the flags of a coming dawn fluttered
In the train of a receding night

14. And the clouds’ horses dripped in an abode
Where the breeze galloped but did not drip

15. We grew weary so we purified our faces
In the soil, between a diving bird and a shortenning one

16. Clad in all kinds of white delicate clothes
Whose wraps are bound with whiter flowers

17. We fold eulogies into our breasts, and yet
Breasts only fold the likes of the right hand of ‘Abqar

18. You find the prince inclined to gentleness, longing
For the meadows to the rain-laden clouds

19. A sovereign whose expectations’ cream is hopes’ harvest
From every provider of blighted bestowal

20. His bestowal comes to you beyond praise’s comprehension
Naturally - such is the way of the discerning

21. It is generosity whose refined manners are revealed
As the sea reveals its jewel under the tide

22. It is as if the hands of gratitude, as they toyed with it
Were the hands of morning breeze toying with ambergris

23. Its lightning flashed so it was like clouds
Amongst some, and like thunderbolts amongst others

24. The kings of earth come seeking his alliance
From a far reached, secluded and well-fortified refuge

25. They departed from us honoured, so they departed in his name
On the day of glory, from every platform’s summit

26. And they saw him as a sun in the cloud’s attainment
Rising and a full moon in the darkness of clouds

27. The war drums spread amongst the regiments and spears
With their melodies in every barren wasteland

28. And he kept vigilance and resolve staying up
At the border, checking the sleeping who never woke

29. Loyal on the peaks of glory, igniting
Fires for the confused invader

30. No sooner did the enemies rally their courage
Than it frightened them, with his finest rising to the fight

31. They advanced so down poured the rain of doom
From every swift swimmer pouring heavy drops

32. And they approached but the spears did not swerve from their wrath
Nor the gazelles from pardon or forgiveness

33. Until they recoiled while the horses dragged above them
The gowns of the ugly raven by galloping

34. If fate made a war prisoner weep
Fate would make them weep in the soil like Caesar

35. Most high! Your ascension still climbs loftily
Prancing between the well-versed and the literates

36. So you have raced ahead of Taghlib traveling by night
The race of arrows ahead of smooth Indian steel

37. Glory - its domes stand out - is struck
In every extended desert plain and populated town

38. And chivalry that hopes run towards
Like the pilgrims’ Sa’y between Safa and Marwah

39. Chained to the traits of etiquette that, if vying,
Comes with the best pride

40. Gentleness holds reserves specified
For praise between its roses and springs

41. The highest spring being pure sweet
Whose springs are rimmed with greenery

42. I have resolved to bestow my speech’s virtues
Only to the generous king, the purebred steed

43. From which all orderly splendor glittered
And patterned the stringing of select pearls

44. It exhaled as I contextualized it
As if its contexts were from amber

45. It abandoned the springs of dew, so they gushed forth
Generously from its gushing spring

46. Its good traits multiplied and its words diminished
So it brought you news from a seldom speaker