1. When will I hope for peace from worries,
And expect health for my frail body,

2. As troubles descend upon me repeatedly,
The crimes of time against the oppressed.

3. Stop, my friend, and tell me,
Of passions and the olden days,

4. By God’s covenant, do I slip and stumble
Upon the straight path’s ridge?

5. Does Lebanon have rest for the wanderer
When he leaves the spring of intimates?

6. Does the desert appear or do I see it
As the plains of Heshbon to Khuzum?

7. Whenever I walked, I would drag my cloak
Upon the beautiful smooth leather,

8. Say, how did the nights change
The plains of Heshbon to rubble?

9. How did the morning breeze take away after me
The relics and features of that place?

10. For strange sorrows are bestowed
Upon one who is patient with afflictions and silent,

11. I love the slope of the two idols where
Spirits are awakened by the emerging clouds,

12. And the scent of flowers from the meadows
And juice of joy from the vines,

13. I do not love kohl to Dujail
Or the infected Zawra’s dwellings,

14. A land where the noblest of free men
Are the fog of the plains watered by the breeze,

15. Everything comes and goes in it
Except for morals, flying, and knowledge,

16. Destinies did not cease testing me
With patience in its painful dwellings,

17. Nor did I flee to its expanse,
Even if I had fled to hell,

18. I was the enemy of my people the day they
Protected their eyes and came alive with determination,

19. So I spend the night sabotaging hopes in them
And the closest to the guests of worries,

20. When the youth frolic,
Their crooked sticks are only their bones,

21. God loved the thin she-camel that threw at me
The hatred of Bakr in Tamim,

22. I refused the night seeking a cure,
For an old disease in their chests,

23. As if I visited them with horses galloping
With jinn of the deserted valley upon their shoulders,

24. Perhaps sustenance will openly attack me one day,
Like Abu Al-Alaa, and what example is there for him

25. Other than the clouds and the stars?
I swore by the faded necks they hide

26. Their symbols so they slip into the cloak,
They have attempted from a faraway land

27. The essence of glory and lineage intact,
Complaining to a merciful one,

28. And judging men to the wise,
A rising helped them so they were adorned

29. With betrayal and thick, wholesome milk,
And when I saw betrayal becoming sweet

30. As wine becomes sweet to the chronic drinker,
I gathered my hopes and tied my rope

31. To a rope not of despicable creation,
For the vigilant enemy and sleeping friend,

32. A young man who does not linger with a companion
Or regret repentance to a boon companion,

33. God showed him forbearance and generosity
While all the people ignorance and blame,

34. He has, besides praise and noble deeds,
The defense of the jealous regarding the sacrosanct,

35. When you come to inform his maternal aunt,
You will fill your hands with generosity and bounty,

36. And many praises have reached his loftiness,
Like the harmony of hearts’ music,

37. They were safe from him, and rhymes would not
Be safe in anything but integrity,

38. I remembered when I saw the rain careening
And a towering slope of Rime Mountain,

39. Your generosity when you exceed in gifts
And your patience when you rage in angers,

40. You marked my face with good deeds,
And the horses’ foreheads you marked with branding,

41. The enemies saw when you protected me,
Like shooting stars, the Capella stars,

42. The morning after the darkness of injustice lifted from me,
A lamp, the forehead of the ferocious lion.

43. I deprived all people but you my praise
And clarified the specific from the general,

44. And in me is aloofness from these favors,
And the flaw was of mean character,

45. I think time will steal things from me
Then the knowledge of the Knower will benefit,

46. When misery befalls, I delight in it,
While some people suffer in luxury,

47. If misfortunes lessen my share,
Nonexistence is not the work of the non-existent,

48. I sought my comfort and spring water,
Yet I came without what I sought from the ignoble one,

49. I did not know sustenance was my opponent,
And that I am the serious jester,

50. Make up for its loss and strengthen its power,
For you are for it and the great event,

51. You used to promise me your palm would bring me
To accept its gift like the creditor,

52. You remained the beard that exhausted its irrigation
And opponent who refuted the opponents’ words,

53. You were not deprived, oh moon of glories,
For you are the foal of the foolish time,