1. With what tongue do the slanderers have pain
When they knew I was awake while they slept

2. Do I utter any innovation in love?
Had they tasted passion, they would be confused

3. Is love not but hidden anguish
Upon which sighs and passion sleep?

4. My mother blames my love while it is innocent
Yet the greatest innocence in your love is blame

5. Do they consider one night with you too much for me
When a year has passed with rejection and a year

6. They charge me not to see betrayal as a trait
While they wash away affection if it is found

7. It is as if love is an inevitable affliction for me
Yet it is but an obligation for the noble

8. The cheek that turns from the blowing of the breeze
In it is health and in its glances, sickness

9. It embarrasses the oxen when facing it
And the gazelles narrate its body’s perfection

10. I secretly embrace it so our secret appears
My cloak over it shields it from the slanderers

11. Though our embrace is cold and the ground is cold
An embrace, a hug, and the veil, a veil

12. I sigh when a breeze blows from the dens
And doves moan atop the hill

13. And I stroke its hand with meadowsweet as if
When the poisonous winds blow, it is healing

14. Chargers the likes of arrows speed them
Men the likes of arrows, arrows

15. It has, in the help of those with height
A square jim and flowing robes

16. Had we not guided it to him, its guidance
Would have come from his generosity and lead

17. The man, as for his money, it is permitted
And as for his honor, inviolable

18. He came, so peace upon the house of peace
With his arrival giving good news and greetings

19. And he returned to it, its morning, though to it
Morning had come while still dark

20. The offender approaches his attainment
And protects his protector while the ranks stand

21. I detect the fragrance of wisdom and assume it is
A priceless gem amidst the assemblies

22. Inaccessible is its protection, if the resolute
Wanted to attain their ancestors’ glory

23. A fortress for the orphans and widows, and needless to say
For them a fortress and a protector

24. The cunning plots against us have come to reveal
Through gifts that spare no effort

25. He sleeps behind vengeance and has never
With an eye on vengeance ceased to be awake

26. That is only because he is vigilant
The foundations are strong and he is unshakable

27. Are you not of the people whose faces
Are full moons and their hands protectors?

28. They prepared for the causes of evil every swimmer
Upon whom a youth for the waves, a youth

29. His cup is tied to the constellations
And it runs spilling its belt upon the ground

30. With a polished surface like water, its waves
And for it the breeze’s conclusion

31. A brown one intoxicated sways, meeting
The crown of its peg and its head

32. Your sword, O Yahya the minister, is blessed
And your view, O crown of the kings, a sword

33. Each day, are you not leader of an army
With which you can defeat the enemy that covets

34. You grant them from it in the feet what they have seen
Scattering, and in the bodies, from it crowding

35. It drives them like cattle, ferociously
To every market of the doves

36. The tribulations in Iraq made me sweat
And were it not for you, Syria would not be far

37. By God, I would not have abandoned you
Even if separation was imposed on me

38. Never will I forget your help and country
In which skin and bones for me grew

39. Glory from you came to its proper place
So no glory will depart as long as order exists