1. Repeat the words of the harsh ones and chant them,
Perhaps my blocked heart may be cured by them.

2. We thought their mounted party helped on the day of intention,
The soul of the changer is the ransom of the soul of the helper.

3. I have no interest in those white camels when they marched,
Bearing beauty over scattered beauty.

4. Their howdahs contain the spears above the sheaths,
And beauty in the adorned and clad.

5. You see the cheek of dawn white and radiant
From under hair black like black dye.

6. She slept while I stay awake, burning with love. And whoever spends the night
With the oath of youth and sorrow has not slept.

7. She lost the old love and did not heed
My responsibility, nor my old pact, nor my hand.

8. By God, O daughter of Malik, after intention
Solace the disturbed stranger.

9. We and your family were good neighbors in the meadows of Ghadha
In the days of youth when kinship was not yet severed.

10. If time would allow me to regain it by its return
But the turn of fate does not make one fortunate.

11. My regrets do not restore what is past.
Alas! What is gone does not recur.

12. O rider, while the night is darkening,
Folding its hems, stumbling in its stumbling,

13. With camels that have reached their journey’s end,
And whose ode is in Ibn al-Rahib Muhammad,

14. You will find in the courtyard of his abode what you desire
Of good pasture and good water-spring,

15. Shaykh of the path, law, and piety,
A sea of dew and generosity, nay a full moon of prophecy,

16. A cave for orphans and widows, a protection
For the resorter and refuge of every outcast,

17. My master, O my fortress against every calamity
In adversities, and my tottering and stumbling,

18. Whosoever does not today protect his flock
Will not be protected by him tomorrow.

19. Lo! I am destroyed while you neglect me
And forsake your wonted inquiry and care of me.