1. Is there any old tale to stir my ardors anew
And kindle the embers of love in my heart?

2. Tell me a tale of the ones I loved, for my heart
Is held ransom by longings and memories.

3. Ask how my heart fares, which I tasked with love -
It found no peace, and they flung it in the flames.

4. Lightning from Kadhimah’s land kindles me -
Alas for that brilliant lightning’s swift flash!

5. I commend to God good neighbors I love,
Who neighbored but respected no neighborhood.

6. What harm if on the day between our clans they had
Shown mercy to a lover felled in the yard?

7. He spreads his arms, clutches his ruptured heart
Fearfully, though he had stretched them Godward.

8. He prays, but none will aid him save his streaming tears
To solace him in his fervent entreaties.

9. O people of Nejd, by God my excuses shine clear
To those who blame me for my love-blighted state!