1. A lightning flash gleamed and lit up,
Stirring up the youthful passions within me.

2. Love kindled in me, igniting
A heart, O Umima, aflame with desire.

3. The lightning whose flash I perceived in the dark night
Was like a fire you kindled in the gloom.

4. Its glimmer was like the shining of wrath
Ripping through the darkness in fiery shreds.

5. It reminded me of your smile, O Suleima,
Which made me weep in yearning and recollection.

6. Thus did memory pass before my eyes
And I tasted nothing but deceitful mirage.

7. The memory of a life of goodness gone by
Has dragged away my mantle of youth.

8. And the passion of days of trysts,
Although their nights were brief.

9. I took my share of pleasures from them,
Disturbing my joy and keeping away the cups.

10. How many delights we neglected in our haste,
Driving them away to distance and remoteness!

11. The wine-pourer Dispenser of drinks was as though
Khosrow had removed his collar and bracelet for her.

12. We blended the wine, and it had been pure ruby,
But blending turned it refreshing for us.

13. Had joy flown with it to its drinking haunts
It would have flown that day to each grapevine.

14. For youth was our garb,
Taking pleasure in our shedding it like a slough.

15. Alas for youth! How it deserted us,
And I could not recover a loaned ornament.

16. The gazelles are scattered, and the herd is manifest;
I do not deny that the small gazelles have fled from me.

17. The blossoms of those I loved have departed from me,
And who do I have to visit or keep company with?

18. Why should I ask the caravans about them
Or inquire about the dwellings and abodes?

19. Standing beside my mount at the ruins
I suffer what is suffered by the sleepless night.

20. I whimper with sadness and melt with yearning,
Yearning deprives me of rest at every halt.

21. My companions have grieved for me and wept,
Sending copious tears flowing forth.

22. Longing for the land of Najd makes you homesick,
But you have not smelled its winds or inhaled its dust.

23. Passion has harmed you, not by your choice,
For passion is nothing but compulsion.

24. It drove them to give a draught from a waterskin,
And poured down showers on its landmarks.

25. I reached the stony plains and wilderness with it,
Traveling the Bedouin deserts and wastelands.

26. Justifying my treatment at the hands of my nurse
Is that I have been healed by drink from the imbiber of wine.

27. With her whose glance still gives me life
And whose estrangement kills me, little by little.

28. She is the tender-eyed gazelle, so she glanced at us,
More gentle than the shy wild cows with lovely eyes.

29. If not for her slaughtering me, I would not complain
Of the deep, gaping wounds she has torn in my guts.

30. As if by sorcery, her eyelids intoxicate
Souls until they are drunk, all drunk.

31. I have tasted the days, and they have taught me;
Their intimate secrets lay bare to me.

32. And if you tested people as I have,
You would find most people wicked.

33. If you judged men when they were elders
By the glory of Muhammed, they would seem small.

34. In guiding them to righteousness and goodness
And hastening them to the most virtuous abodes.

35. How much virtue he attained in the arena of merit,
Not stirring up in it a speck of dust!

36. By my soul! When disaster befalls,
I flee to him for refuge and escape.

37. In his shade the prosperous live a life
That delights the eye with its greenery and freshness.

38. And he spends money in God's cause,
Hoarding reward for himself by stockpiling it.

39. And he cares in his affairs for the weak,
Few care for the weak as he cares!

40. Insight illuminates his affairs,
And his experience tests and deduces.

41. His virtues have adorned him with an ornament
That will surely neither be sold nor lent.

42. He created novel acts of kindness and charity
Rarely accomplished except through invention.

43. The nobility of the Bani Zuhayr
Have always been the elite who engender the elite.

44. Carpentry of glorious ancestry and product of pride,
May God keep you, that excellent carpenter!

45. They are the lofty mountain of glory,
Sheltering from disasters whoever seeks their refuge.

46. Indeed, Muhammad was the most loyal ally,
The most abundant winner and the noblest neighbor.

47. O Father of Abdul-Hamid, you have been raised in esteem
And granted forbearance and ability.

48. You surpassed past peoples, so none can compare
To your stature and glory, or rival you.

49. Glory to Him who granted you forbearance
So you outweighed mountains in dignity and gravity!

50. And inspired you with wisdom in every view,
Showing you the bright sunlight in its darkness.

51. The people have not ceased being your dependents,
Never ceasing to revolve around you.

52. You built with your ascendancy a station for them
And illuminated with your brilliance a beacon for them.

53. Yours is the discerning view from which guidance appears,
A guide that led people who had been perplexed.

54. In you are shrewdness and sharpness of mind,
The advisor and consultant see you thus.

55. Your outstanding qualities have risen so high
That they have not taken any home on earth.

56. You have assumed the most eloquent rhymes,
Better than the virgins assume their necklaces.

57. The rhymes have not encompassed your praises,
Neither in the systemization nor scattering of verse.

58. If I fall short in what I have brought of them,
Recitation of them has been both concise and brief.

59. May you occupy a rank, ascending and soaring,
And a title that we can proudly commemorate!