1. Strangers to the sands of Al-Himma I return
My heart bound to its people remains steadfast

2. I remember them as an infant remembers its mother
My eyes pour forth tears that I freely give

3. My patience weakens as my youth grows strong
This part of me declines while that increases

4. The dove in the valley's midst sings to me
For your presence has returned and is renewed

5. When you sing, you bring back the poet
So who is here, rhyming and composing verse?

6. You are gentle to a friend long gone from you
Yet my longing is for a people I desire

7. I recall one whose branches are cloaked
And whose young gazelle has two eyelids and neck

8. When she smiles, her teeth shine white
When she walks under the rod, she bows her head

9. I camped at Tahamiyya while its people settled
In Najd, and between the two encampments is a distance

10. You have given us refuge, do not hear any slander of me
For my love for you is confirmed within my ribs

11. For man may be suspected yet still innocent
And accused by the ignoramus yet still rightly-guided

12. I have grown weary of living in Sihām and Marba‘
Conversation, and Wadi Asharin, noisy

13. I spur my camels between Mawr and Surad
Yet no one is guided to my ode

14. If I returned to the palace of Al-Ĥusām out of passion
Poverty would return to hound me ceaselessly

15. I am but a slave of Mu‘ayyad
While the stars of nightfall are like me, slaves to him

16. I am but one of the saplings he has planted
There is no denial of the blessings of generous benefactors

17. I inspired the riding-beasts when I recalled him
Among them the lonely one and the affectionate one hastened

18. I headed to open plains without confined dwellings
With a pool of dew that has no blame or flowers

19. The best wealth is praise, for praise remains
While wealth itself perishes and fades away

20. He is inspired in his actions, as if
The shining dawn itself stands over him

21. He increases in generosity whenever life is miserly
He is clouded in mist while the hands of the stingy are frozen

22. He enriches barrens while the lands are arid
He illuminates a face while tribulations are darknesses

23. She who gave birth to him gave birth to one unmatched
And Qahtan gave birth, as did Hud

24. The lofty abodes of Bilaal ibn Bardah did not crumble
For this one has rebuilt what that one constructed

25. So let not the ambitious covet his distinction
For the like of the bamboo rod is not found again

26. Not every thundering cloud brings rain
Nor is every shining one Indian steel

27. O Father of Ahmad! No, but honorable - here I am
Calling upon Abu Bakr while the riding beasts are led

28. I struck across the width of the desert and its length
To you, with both driver and sacrifice

29. The stinginess of Ghuwayr and his family did not harm me
For the plait of my Khurāsānī stallion and you as provision

30. When the life of As-Simāk and Nasr comes to an end
Your succession follows the Saud, succeeded by Saud