1. For whom is the caravan and its torment and affliction
Crossing the desert, grieving, over plains

2. Enduring the scorching heat of noon
And the burning pangs of thirst from stretch to stretch

3. Over highlands whose fleet-footed mounts
Raced up the desert hills and down

4. Whenever they passed by an abandoned campsite
The tears of their eyes poured forth abundantly

5. And when thirst cracked their lips
As if they had drunk the freshest draught

6. Did you see them recall in their present misery
A time that passed with those they love so impetuously

7. When intimacy was replaced with estrangement and blessings
With misery, clear water with turbid stale

8. Our days together were cut short in Ramah
And separated, we recalled them overlong

9. We pastured it green meadows now lie desolate
And wept over ruins and high verdant mounds

10. Where, O Saad, are dwellings now decayed
With dear ones once lodged in their environs

11. And abodes whose far precincts
After our last meeting saw only decline

12. I strain my eyes but cannot discern
A beloved glance or a cheek to kiss

13. We recalled our pledge to you though you left
Burning in tears and loud lamentations

14. How heavily the day of your departure weighed
When you broke camp and quit this settlement

15. Taking sturdy camels with humps like hillocks
And sheltering ‘neath the ample shade of the acacias’ boughs

16. By what memory can we recall you
As friends recall a cherished friend

17. It leaves the heart aflame and desolate
Burning in grief as tears course down

18. The ruins of your camp we watered with copious tears
We once shed only as plentiful rain showers

19. A lovesick heart held fast in ardent passions’ fist
Can see no path leading to patience

20. His devotion has turned him from reproaching you
Disobeying the reprovers’ strictures

21. You left a body in torment and bore off
His heart seized with violence and brute force

22. Soothe us with a breeze from you
Though it arrives infirm it may heal us

23. And favor us with a visiting apparition
Who came to us one night but brought no solace

24. Send him back to us again
Be he from you or your messenger

25. By the sanctity of love, had it not been for your absence
My eyes would never have violated the inviolable

26. True boldness belongs only to one who can restrain
Ardent glance and reckless passion

27. How the slave of love is humbled by one who enslaves him
Many a proud man is made lowly by love

28. Would that God had not appointed for me a time
When grief and adversity were my lot

29. If fate deals harshly with me through all its caprice
The eternal master’s favor has always been my solace

30. A rival challenging us with his blade
Daily rains battle’s torrents upon us

31. Yet look upon the desert’s expanse and you’ll never find
One to match his beauty and charm

32. Beneficent, bestowing fully what is due
Amongst a folk who count all merit extravagance

33. Long have I quenched my burning thirst from his moisture
As he gave me to drink from his flowing stream

34. Does Time not have in its workings and affairs
Dazzling features in which it shines resplendent

35. The finest spectacle to delight the eyes
Is a battlefield with neighing steeds and clashing swords

36. A day on which nothing glows except
Flashing blades wiping their bloodstained points

37. And the lance points piercing the horses’ croups
Till the white battleground is soaked crimson

38. O foremost Imam, let him aspire to your glory
Who hopes to gain lasting noble fame

39. You have no equal among men even if
You are as the full moon’s counterpart and parallel

40. None but you defend the refugee or shelter
The wayfarer among the nobility of our age

41. Though there may be warriors among them
There were never among them but mere swaggerers

42. And if their lineages were to be verified
Yours would prove the noblest in ancestry and descent

43. No elevation was too lofty to elude your grasp
Nor summits too towering for you to scale

44. You have attained the highest pinnacle
From which all vision recoils dazzled

45. And your glory refused but to make you
Accessible quarry, an inviolable sanctuary

46. Are you not the sheltering rain whose water
Left no meadow without some trace of green

47. Bounty and beauteous deeds have forever
In you, my Master, an immutable condition

48. One generation passes it on through succession
To the next, as enduring as mountains

49. Which of your blessings can I requite
When you have burdened me with weighty favors

50. My fortune stirred from its dormancy
After fate had sunk it in despondency

51. Each new dawn grants me from your treasures
Lavish gifts and copious largesse

52. And whenever you are absent I enjoy
The shade of your protection from exposure

53. My hands are weary from collecting
Your unremitting gifts never refused

54. I am like an early-blooming meadow
Showered by your pouring rains

55. And only fitting after it for me to hurry on
Trailing the trains of your robe from dawn

56. So remain a feast for all festive occasions
Sweet waters for the wayfarer, and a welcoming refuge