1. Bring close to me the wine cups of freedom,
And take them on a journey of parting,

2. And excuse me, saying I am forbearing,
Lord, of things I was distressed by and felt constricted.

3. Violent storms blew me away from you,
And man endures what he is capable of enduring.

4. I am not pleased with a companion from you,
My soul is enough for me, I am tired of companions.

5. I was a confidant out of shyness and forbearance,
So leave me be, I have cut off the bonds.

6. May God not water the valleys of discord,
I was never harmonious with them in the first place.

7. And when lightning strikes it with heavy rain,
May God protect it with that lightning.

8. My heart is not inclined to it, my friend,
If it yearns for her and longs.

9. Except this alive one I loved
And others stirred my heart and pained it.

10. Every day there are faults in my qualities
That will keep you safe if you taste them.

11. And the shame of my tears from my weeping
Made the tears pour swiftly.

12. You are virtuous in it while I am blemished,
So seek other than Iraq as your Iraq.

13. There are folks in Zawra’
Whose evil I renounce and forsake.

14. They imprisoned us among them then called out,
“Do not expect flight from our hands.”

15. May God hasten the separation from a people
Who left me, though I do not blame separation.

16. I am, in the face of every impudent person,
One who does not show you love except hypocritically.

17. If it tilts away from a bit of foolishness,
Tears will burst from it and pour.

18. A group, if they are tested, are branches
That appear good but have a bitter taste.

19. The more good I show them,
The more they increase me in hatred and conflict.

20. And if I blame them they make me hear
Words even more contentious.

21. We meet while diseased hearts
Will not be cured by our meeting.

22. Of the companions I was empty,
When the love pulled me and marched on.

23. My heart led me away from them recklessly,
They groomed it to lead the camels.

24. Tell those who embraced me then turned away,
I will live not craving that embrace.

25. The caravan wondered one morning when they saw
Why we did not increase in love and longing.

26. Then they said, we accept the excuse
If we separate and you live in remoteness.

27. The passionate ones have awoken and turned away,
While the one who loves you has not awoken.

28. I have no creator other than you,
So make for me with you a creator.

29. We are a people in lofty abodes
Upon which honor has erected a porch.

30. Buy me either long spears
For the enemies, or slender swords.

31. In tents encircling the villages
Their ropes have been knotted.

32. And if you wander around a courtyard
You will find none of us surpassing.

33. You will find only a path for a spear
Or a thicket where an enemy was smote.

34. Among us are impregnable fortresses from Quraish
That do not fear extermination.

35. They wore glory whether as a cloak
Dragging its train or as a belt.

36. After you we kept the virtues to ourselves,
Sipping them in cups morning and night.

37. Nothing prevented us from attaining the heights
In virtues except what held you back.

38. This life has become unsettled, O people,
Like the neighing of a stallion to the mares.

39. Whenever it discourages me from an ambition,
It increases me in clinging to it insistently.

40. The world has ropes of deceit,
So break through them to escape it.

41. Whoever wants lasting glory in it
Let him divorce it each day.