1. The abodes - their gazelles graze
But the dark script on their necks

2. Makes the moons in their halos radiant
And the branches in their saplings lush

3. Suppose the moons matched their distance
Whence would the moons get their brilliance?

4. From each alluring glance my spindle takes
A winding thread to its heights

5. It revives souls by joining them, but youth's wonder
Kills them by its fickleness

6. I bid farewell in coarse cloaks to Ghayda
Haughty, snatching the shawls off her shoulders

7. She appeared and March held her perfect figure
The sun beneath her veil and the bough beneath her gown

8. The water of her youth kindles love’s agony
And the water of her eyes overflows fire of shyness

9. She returned and her lover called out her betrayal
Long live her loyalty to the loyalty of her troth!

10. Take for me her eyelids’ tether and pillow
For my infatuation has naught left but her tattle

11. Many a gloomy night have I wished her dead
With no moonlight wandering her breasts

12. My longing and sorrow lengthened — and yet
They’d not hurt had they shortened to our day of union

13. I put up with whom I love though fear of harm
Would not make me stint the full moon of her heavens

14. A cheek lacking a mole like its mark
Rather a black eye adorns my twain in her water

15. The crescent swooned so I strung it as though
I threaded its pearls from her hazels

16. I gave it the goblet of wine singing
At its rhythm sweetened away from her youth

17. Till the dawn’s light appeared like the rise
Of a dear king spreading over its shadows

18. The defeater of enemies wakes in the dew
And the victor of matches the day of its call

19. A rain if it pours in its lean years
A lion if it roars in its dens

20. It imposed on necks allegiance to its sword
And war aflame over its scions

21. From a chaste lineage the conduits of its realm
Flow with favors known from its signs

22. Whenever magnanimous Wā’il are recalled
The marks of munificence suffice over names

23. Naught but lightning blushed save that
It was bashful the morn of the delegates of its clouds

24. So let the distant Yemeni tribe know
It is the abode of annihilation at its end

25. You clothed it in the ink of magnanimity, so it was shy -
Enough what your hands wove, O Sana’a

26. I thirsted, so that was ensuring its drink
And I complained, so the sword was deciding its case

27. It turned the time’s course away from it wrathful
And it disdained its possessions and blood

28. To it belong the heavens: its plateau flourished
Without fighting, and its buildings’ height was raised

29. And it wrote treatises of redemption in regiments
Forever victory marches beneath its banner

30. It brought forth the whites of gazelle and the blacks of partridges
Joining its morn and eve

31. So today the king settles atop his throne
And the waters of justice are drained from its pools

32. It was only like the polished sword
And thus swords shine at its unsheathing

33. So glory is a heart whose blackness you have removed
And the dazzling whiteness you have given its darknesses

34. You have smoothed the land - so many a favor
Gratefully owed by its successors

35. And you returned the diminished truth with selves
Indian swords measure up not to its measure

36. And famous, witnessed stations
Where desperate hope recovered in its lands

37. For you are its pillars in times of resolve
And its generous rains in times of need

38. The lions protecting its sanctuary, the moons gleaming its dawns
You rebuilt its fallen pillars

39. And shouldered its heavy burdens
It was fearful, but you gave it safety

40. On the brink, so you blessed it with recovery
Perhaps you codified the course of munificence

41. And performed the duties of glory
You embodied glories - O Ayyub’s sons -

42. Beyond all counting
The maidenly state after its defiance

43. Floated wherever it wished to its matches
If Syria feels desolate without you

44. My days were often cheered by its misery and comfort
I clothed it in robes of gloom in pining

45. And stole the raiment of its beauty and splendor
So to you beyond all mankind I directed

46. Poems meant for you, pulling the reins of praise toward you
Every easy flow, when I fell for it on the parchment

47. The eyes of men shine clear in its streaming
Goods are lowly before its crowning glory

48. And expectant sights from its peers
It folded the lands and whenever its earth is trod

49. It enriches while deemed one of its paupers
It came to you luxuriously clad in fertile verdant growth

50. Dragging the train of its dominion behind
Minds bowed down to it until it was right for it

51. Whatever it fancied from its vanity
It transgresses and shyness cuts it short at times

52. It goes on if it addresses in its fervor
If its patron does not favor you enough

53. Then his fine loyalty has deputized for you
A man whose doubts paused upon you - enough.

54. Munificence and wealth match it