1. We blamed him for breaking covenants
And being unfaithful to his promise and what was promised

2. And we accepted what he did even though we
Steered away from him and erected barriers

3. He delays something in his hands and his
Delay becomes more hurtful if it was already present

4. O my friend, dawn is breaking upon us
With forebodings and generosities

5. A stopover in Zarud where the heart desires
A stopover with you, O ropes of Zarud

6. So Zarud is what I love even if it was
Not destined to join the caravan

7. And there lies passion though Zarud, if guided
Would be unguided and its people graceless

8. With does singing with threaded pearls
Not like strung pearls in necklaces

9. Adorned by God with natural beauty
Not with finery upon finery

10. They said when they saw a streak of white
In my hair, my exertion has wearied me

11. Flashes dazzled us and feebleness
Crept into edges of those dark nights

12. Whiteness made new in darkness
That had long been inhospitable to newness

13. Oh you who targeted us with beauty
To subdue us without armies

14. My whiteness is not of my doing so bar
Them from me; my blackness is not of you

15. Rarely did some hairs of mine
Once witness my dignity

16. Grateful am I for the splendor of kings, religion and state
And exceeding in glorification

17. In his blessed days I was given
The banner of reform and unification

18. Through his excellence I came alive
And became eloquent though slaves stayed mute

19. Before his patronage I saw the world
With disinterest and aloofness from afar

20. Then came to me his noble gesture
That made me sit up after lying prone

21. And called me though had another called
I would not have come, being far removed

22. Your favors came to me, O King of mankind
Though I had been at the range of farness

23. Oblivious of gifts from You that made me rich
And adorned me and garlanded my neck

24. Come to us freely without toil, for striving
Does not suit the Attainer of wishes

25. A title I had before was like a poor Yemeni
Who came naked without raiment

26. Or like a claim to honesty that hurts me more
With an obstinate people if not witnessed

27. And if I found favor in the King's eyes
Then who can be my equal?

28. After I had dwelled among people
Sipping the curdled milk of closing hearts

29. They experienced life in its bitterness
And though it was sweet, it was not desired

30. I am a sword You unsheathed against Your
Enemies - and how many blunted swords have you unleashed!

31. By Your ennoblement that raises the sights
No lord was seen to emerge from darkness

32. What glory compared to You for one who desires glory
What purpose in devotion and pilgrimage?

33. When visited by the refined, they attained
The object of fondness and the passion of the lute

34. The place which God beautified with kingship
Knitted every fragmented dominion

35. We saw those who disobeyed You at dusk
And deviated from Your outstretched shadow

36. Some helpless in shackles, not free
Others slain by the sword, not martyred

37. Some expelled, wishing destruction
Had poured over them torrents of iron

38. Some white-haired like reeds, deluded
And in them cubs of death nest like beasts

39. And men who care not if they bear
Injustice without threatening vengeance

40. Like shifting sands or wolves of the wasteland
Howling, then slinking after stillness

41. Each set loose like a torrent to destruction
Wed to death like deafening boulders

42. Haughty, so if you rouse him at a tyrant's
Grave, he rises to no better purpose

43. We approached no one but You
And visited none but by Your overflowing stream

44. And God decreed in Your gifts from Him
Gifts that to us are ever increasing

45. Then He called out in Your kingdom: “O eternal
Abode, stay protected, do not perish!”

46. “And from now hear my call at daybreak
By Your hands, every distant house!”

47. Fragrant with acceptance what was not
With the hearts of men ever rejected

48. And if my aspiration faces no obstacle
At Your gate, then my ode, to Your courtyard