1. Had my heart obeyed my hand the day we parted
The traces of the departed wouldn't have left my homeland

2. Had I found the owner of the anklets as my companion
My passion would have lived, but she was not to be found

3. Why did I weep with eyes filled with yearning
While she laughs with indifference and apathy

4. I bid her farewell, unwillingly parting with my love for her
I promised to mourn her songs, but she didn't promise to return

5. And absence from Laila destroyed our connection
Though I never blamed her for the distance between us

6. If only the critics, the day they denounced me, had restrained
The reddish camels, and if only the night had not been pitch-black

7. As if their riding camels, when they appeared,
Galloped over my free face and heart

8. In the tents there’s a light not hidden from you by any veil
With roses on the cheeks reddened like wine

9. They didn't actually leave, rather they only pretended and schemed to leave
They didn't really depart, but only saddled my body as if it left

10. How many nights has the thought of their cunning ways
Whirled round in my mind - but only their parting whirls in my mind!

11. O people of those camels, how could it harm you
To replace my sweet sleep with tossing and turning?

12. O lover of the open desert, empty of companions,
And roamer in the nights with the saddlebags!

13. As fragrant as flowers and water sweet as honey
To the beauty of the beautiful words of the ancients

14. To the son of Ahmad - do not look to anyone else
To Jarir, excellent in rhyme - nay, surpassing al-Farazdaq even

15. Binder of the necklace and the apple into knots
To the son of Taraf, and the tribe of Bahra, who licks his hand,

16. Reciter of authentic poems, not decreasing or increasing a thing
That one is the son of my uncle, whose lineage is my lineage

17. Like an eyelid to an eye, or a palm to a forearm
And a gift came to me, in which was blame

18. Had I tasted its delicacies in water, I would not have turned away
And how could I reject Shaddad, and the many favors

19. Upon me from him, beyond limit or number?
And I gained much bounty from his virtues

20. And I went about wearing his new clothes
Because my people are the tribe of Tubba

21. O people, could I have voluntarily severed my own nose?
I kissed your gift when it came to me

22. And it greeted me through the fingertips of the noble horseman
It made me hear in it a voice that deafened me

23. Would that poems had never been born or given birth!
An issue that resembled the old story of Joseph

24. Carried upon a roof without pillars
You sent it in lines from you, filled

25. With a morning from the night, or a night from murky gloom
It came with a beautiful exterior and a rough texture

26. With a rope of palm fiber on its side
So I said: Indeed, Husam al-Din wants it

27. And there is no rest from the roar of the lion
If Husam al-Din were just to shake a finger

28. At the sea, the sea would surge and foam
Or if Husam al-Din would say "stop!" to the water, it wouldn't flow,

29. Or say to the fire, "stop!" and it wouldn't blaze
The brethren of Jacob sold Joseph, and so they were laden

30. With shame and disgrace forevermore!