1. Perhaps a homeland whose separation has pained us
Will bring us close and organize us as companions,

2. So the quicker separation's arrow passes
The closer my heart will be to you, having made no mistakes.

3. Your being connected was a gift of fate,
So why does it want back today what it once gave?

4. Oh, how I wish I knew, will it ever be forgiving
Of a pact which I was at the middle of when it was broken?

5. And will it ever help me, one day with a return
That lights up the expanses of Shayqar and al-Shatta?

6. Do you remember how many pleasures, the trace of pleasure,
We drew in the wraps of al-‘Ulā softly?

7. And how many times the wind passed with us over the plain
Where the love, family, and kinsmen dwelled?

8. And an irrigation channel the winds blow about, bending it,
So you’d think it was a reed-pen beneath the winds.

9. And a water-brook like an outstretched galaxy
Upon whose banks the stars wove their carpets.

10. Its water was clear until its pouring
Seemed like an Indian sword being drawn or a gliding serpent.

11. As if we had stirred up light beneath the hand of the morning breeze
Pearls or gems with chips and cracks.

12. When the violent winds scattered its necklace,
We ransomed it, gathering it piece by piece.

13. What sights have delighted the onlooker’s eye!
What lodgings have I found most hospitable!

14. Gardens blooming, handsome as the gardens of Ma‘rib,
With sweet, undefiled pleasures, no bitterness or tartness,

15. And four well-known meadows, unsullied by sin,
Nor has the call to prayer been heard from them clamoring.

16. If Imru’ al-Qays ibn Hujr were to describe them,
He would fall short of mentioning anguish and misfortune.

17. And an unmarried girl, ninety years of pilgrimage,
We gave our souls for her bride price unconditionally.

18. We held market there continuously, but she
Would not accept the curly-haired youths time after time.

19. We were about to unveil her, but she
Did not allow the critic to circle about her, controlling us.

20. She circles about, a slim branch, playing,
With a sway like wine, or still stronger.

21. And a cheek like the full moon on its night of perfection,
You’d think the darkness of the mole therein was a dot.

22. And a leg whose anklet complains of tightness, just as
Her wrists complain of the bracelets being too tight.

23. And hair that covers her back, black, copious,
So that the plaits therein are like combs.

24. One who was a youth aspires to the likes of her,
Else passion has not dealt justly with him in love.

25. And inferior to her, a maiden I have versified perfectly
And strung the ears of rhyme with her name like ear-rings

26. And even if I gave her as a gift a Howdah
To take her from Washiya to San‘a as finery,

27. And as an excuse for delay in replying, I have been weak
And can bear no burden nor extend any.

28. Illness has come upon me for a year, so it has brought me down
Against my will, from my earnestness, laid low.

29. And suffering of constant worries has gone on, and all of them
Are quack doctors probing blindly into my sickness.

30. So this one sees it as a blood disease,
And that one sees it as bile that has mixed in.

31. This one recommends you, then a flood of others
Say, though the diagnosis was wrong, the effort was noble.

32. If your eyes could see my complexion has grayed
And the glow of my face has changed and diminished,

33. And my hair the shadows of night have streaked
And the dawn of white hairs has gleamed in its wings and combed,

34. You would have seen, from the mirror, a distorted creature
And, from the mirror, you would reject a disheveled, mussed form.

35. To God I complain of what has afflicted me, for it has transgressed,
And I ask Him to hasten recovery, for it has lingered.

36. And when the era of your sweet correspondence grew distant
And the world refused its friendships, drifting far,

37. I peered out over my horizon, its lightening flashing,
And melted in yearning if it would take some risks for me,

38. Perhaps it could revive the soul of one who pines
As rains have revived land that seemed infertile.