1. My hope of meeting you after despair
Has deluded my heart with the intention of despair

2. And if I had known you were in Aleppo
I would have met it with my eyes and head

3. And so in Damascus, had it not been for you
I would not have returned my horses to it from Baniyas

4. Rather, I imagined you would return to Damascus
So I returned to it from Cyrrhus

5. O my intimate unlike any other intimate
And my companion unlike my family and people

6. Do not forget my covenant, for I
As long as I live, do not forget covenants

7. Compare my conscience to yours in affection
For affection is the standard of my measurement

8. And rely confidently on the sincerity of my affection
Not on what my paper contains

9. If you could see me as you knew me
To be among the priests and the deacons

10. Buying minced meat with two silver coins and not
Distinguishing between a church and a synagogue

11. You would see me one day at a tavern by the river
And another at a wine shop by the highway

12. So some blame the lack in my purse
And others blame the fullness of my cup

13. That is better than serving people
Who when tested are not people

14. They belittle what I have given of advice
And see my clothing as too much

15. And if I were to utter to them a word
That almost tore down mountains at their foundations

16. I would exhaust what I possess and not save
A penny for the time of bankruptcy

17. And when I drown in the mires of anxiety
In Mardin is the place I cast my anchor

18. A town I have never visited except I
Left it my town and place of my head's rest

19. They bestowed upon me, with generosity, affection
That from them increases my tranquility

20. So my day is spent with a cave lion
And my evening is sleeping with a wild deer

21. Some call me Abu Firas
And others call me Abu Nuwas

22. I do not complain of life except that
I do not see you in the gatherings

23. My master, my companion, my intimate, my friend
Necklace of my neck, crown of my head

24. What enemies say does not change you
For the building of affection is above foundation

25. Or my boast of you from the effort of poetry
According to my pampering and tranquility

26. Or the quarreling of the gray-haired on the day
I sold my boy slave to the broker

27. That is the nonsense of the tongue from the intensity of rage
For nonsense is like sneezing

28. O northern breeze, if you pass by Aleppo one day
A day of fragrant breaths

29. Visit a beloved of ours in the land of a beloved one
And convey my passion and what I have endured of torment

30. A companion who whenever worries attacked
Makes his soul equal and consoles

31. And when you finish kissing his palms
Greet the young man of the highway

32. Then describe to the magnificent descendant of Hariri
My yearning, and pride is the descendant of Yas