1. A gazelle grazing under the stars, restless,
A heart almost burnt by passion,

2. With those I loved in the darkness,
My reproach melts and tears flow.

3. I remember them when the stars ascend,
My eyes brim with tears.

4. O Saad, the sleepless lover tosses,
My insomnia continues, exciting.

5.
What do you say? What do you think of fate?

6. Will it relent, though now implacable?
Or will time past return to us again

7. With its joys, its wine of bright bubbles?
Days that revel in youth and in our life

8. When souls delight in its pleasures.
Alas for your life among ardent passions

9. And loved ones who will not disperse in grief.
In an abode where I was raised, the flowers of meadows bloomed

10. Watered by plentiful rainclouds.
Leaves danced to the rhymes of their tones

11. And lightning flashed and clapped.
As for vine leaves, what leaves!

12. Green satin and smooth silk.
Spring revealed its beauty,

13. And our mornings were radiant and clear.
Our meadows were stars in bloom and our cup

14. Borne by a slender and graceful hand,
Anemones appeared like shining moons

15. The full moon was cracked next to them,
As if the cup of wine was a flashing light,

16. And the wings of night a thick cloud,
The fluttering sleeves you’d think

17. A crescent moon bedecked with stars.
It gazes at you with a bewitching glance,

18. Melting hearts that ache with passion.
Have you seen what Samad’s eyes have done?

19. Not caring for blood spilled and shed.
O you with glances like arrows

20. That pierce hearts and wound them.
My heart is your prisoner, tortured in love,

21. I'm fettered while you roam free.
For you I have shed copious tears

22. In longing, yet you do not soften or pity.
Why not return to unite with your lover?

23. Youth has ended and we are separated.
So favor me with a kiss to quench

24. My thirst, give generously as charity.
Alas the days of youth are gone

25. Those days I longed for are no more.
They went but their sorrows remain

26. Renewed each day, created anew.
The abodes of love and their landmarks

27. Are ruined, their beauty gone.
Speak of the dwellings and tell us

28. How fare the tribe and their tents?
Does anyone visit your land, watering the traces

29. Left by tents, households, and settlements?
Are its meadows still verdant, still graced

30. By flowers adorned in elegance?
How the lands and people have changed!

31. Time has marched on, dividing and scattering.
Those faces are gone, replaced by others.

32. The houses no longer shine.
It was my fortune to suffer at the hands

33. Of some whose favor I failed to win.
Such is this world that you see

34. It has cheated the wise and rewarded the fool.
So I have been patient with ever-ready disasters,

35. Neither cursing them nor fearing their blows,
Until misfortunes told me

36. “Wondrous is your patience, steadfast still!”
Since I praised Abu Al-Jamil, no one applauds me,

37. My voice is hoarse and I flatter no patrons.
The narrators have transmitted fully his virtues

38. My praise rises in the East and sets in the West.
The poets say I am his preeminent bard

39. Unequalled in singing his glorious deeds.
For him I sang, adorned with his beauty.

40. You know the dove is always adorned.
I spoke truthfully with eloquent voice

41. And it pleased me to speak truth.
News of timeless glory told by a speaker

42. Whose voice makes the age bow down in awe.
If the braggart night challenged him

43. Dawn would shame it and tear its cloak.
With the grip of a young lion

44. Jaws and claws both cerulean.
Fighting however he wishes, rising high,

45. Vanquishing all as he desires.
Meeting him or receiving his gifts

46. Is like rain pouring and lightning striking.
Those he pardons live in gardens

47. Watered from his hands in streams.
See how free men are slaves to him

48. In goodness, though not emancipated.
He created beauty in his essence

49. And now manifests it in all things.
Generous in hardship and ease alike

50. Wealth does not rest till he spends it.
God spared me the need for their protection -

51. Be they defiant or subservient.
God knows you are above them in rank,

52. Soaring high in the heavenly sphere.
O you who wear the mantle of leadership and nobility,

53. Your fragrant cloak makes praise flourish.
What glories and virtues you possess!

54. The breath of their fragrance gives life.
No eyes have seen your equal before

55. Among past or future generations.
You have revived extinguished glory.

56. Glory lives on in your life, sustained.
I ransom you from all displeasure -

57. Men I wish had never been created.
You are graced to perform fair deeds,

58. For gracious deeds are doubly graced.
Every ambitious person seeks your bounty,

59. Your door of gifts is never closed.
Tongues thank you, finding sweet

60. Your words and enchanting your speech.