1. What sane person have you not deceived,
And what eye seeing you has not wept?

2. I do not praise despair, but it
Is more soothing to the soul than hoping.

3. Happy is he who saw the pasture of death
Being grazed, and did not graze or browse.

4. Oh, would that before the passion of love
I had listened to reproach in my hearing.

5. Is what is past of life coming back,
And is the future all to return?

6. Where are the abodes of the people of Darim,
Too miserly to be revealed from the horizon?

7. Neither in the dark of the month do they appear,
Nor on the nineteenth or the fourth night.

8. Had their eyes not been arrows
They would not have torn through the slit of the veil.

9. How did you get to my slain ones
When you did not know to steer or paddle?

10. I entrusted them to my heart but did not find them
Betraying perfidy to the confided.

11. The truth is my right and I am the claimant.
If their specters knew me tossing in my bed

12. From stinginess they would not know.
I say to the riders who intended

13. Pilgrimage to the ruins and the four nights,
"Visit my mention in the valley of Dhul Hulayfa,

14. And that Mustahabb and Muzdalifa,
And tell them what you wish about me,

15. For it is less than the burning anguish."
A she-camel passed by their pasture

16. Yearning for her suckling young.
The bald, if hair would grow on her,

17. Would grow it on the scalp of the bald.
Every cloud that rained on their land

18. Carried water from my tears.
And every wind that disturbed their sand

19. Is the sigh from my ribs.
Do the fifty intercede for me with them?

20. Never! And the twenty did not intercede.
If my eyes pour down clouds,

21. It is from clouds in my head that lightened.
You want life and youth together,

22. Things not combined for man.
It's the same to singers whether

23. The youth's head dons white hair or is eulogized.
The day colors its head from its night

24. And morning with youth and whiteness.
Misfortunes manifold as pebbles

25. Bring together the wolf and the hyena.
They make the honorable wretched in her wasteland

26. And suddenly assail the maiden in her private chamber.
How much that diverted its course passed me by;

27. Had it passed the paper mulberry, it would not have flowed.
I raised my shoulders from its waves

28. Where youth hints with a finger.
Whoever does not plunge into its billows

29. Does not establish the foundations of glory or ascend.
Below the highlands is a towering precipice—

30. Hurl yourself to its peak or be toppled!
Tell the ruffians I see their religion

31. As my religion and the religion of the growling lion.
Either his den filled his fang

32. Or he died rabid and was not slain.
When I see you like the dogs of anger

33. Smelling the scent of the filthy goat,
In youths whose boast is mostly

34. Propping worn-out pillows on withered arms,
If they marry they do not control their camels

35. Except with abundant feed and companionship.
They are guided by them like the stars of night

36. Who lost his way in the black darkness.
Their hands dye the thickets of dawn—

37. If the people dye with indigo.
I said, and they are places of refuge from fate

38. Like the prostrating palm trunk.
Spur on your mounts, for how many an aim

39. Has been reached by the excellent smooth rock!
Call on Abu Sa'd to help you,

40. Like the yap of the black Evening Star,
A seller with a long rope and skillful hands

41. And speech strutting in the council.
When his pens rise they make fun

42. Of the public speaker with his switch.
His jars are filled with imbalance;

43. Whenever a reactor comes by he leaks.
He reveals from it striking truths—

44. He won the precedence and was not fooled.
A man's beauty is not in his cloak;

45. His beauty is in the most noble lineage.
Creation points to him in gesture,

46. If it is said "who is known for most delightful?"
What his robes contain confuses

47. The beautiful world in one place.
Incivility is clad on one without manners

48. Like minted dinars which were not stamped.
O brother, and may kinship's affection continue,

49. If kinship is cut off it is not cut off!
What is between us of manners, bringing us close,

50. Is closer than a suckling mother.
Goodness from you, if repaid by me,

51. Is a favor returned in place of favor.
A guide like you is a repository

52. For his family in the most guarded repository.
Now convey from me what my gratitude

53. Equals the creak of the laden rider's saddle.
Those hopes spring from are withered;

54. Their auction from his basin is browsed.
No palm trees beautifully lofty

55. Nor clouds raining with lightning.
If you likened another to him

56. You equated the spring and the pond.
Why did you give my enemies

57. The reins of the head of the smooth swimmer?
They cast my love with the pebbles of their lies

58. Like casting pebbles at pillars during Hajj.
Every mouth that breathes a saying about me

59. I am safer than the bite of the giant lizard.
About me they became, though I advised sincerely,

60. And if I had acted with deceit, they would have been with me.
Seek the opinion, that it may return with him,

61. Of one who returned the sun for Joshua.
For you are more guided on the path of glory

62. Than the wild cat in the howling wilderness.
And attain it, even if you come upon a fox

63. Forget what is reported of Al-Asma'i.
Yesterday we saw a speaker hearing,

64. And today we lack one who comprehends.