1. O mistress of poetry, long has been my estrangement and patience
And old age has stripped me bare, while grey hairs scatter

2. A thousand years for you is but a year, yet
He who bears estrangement, finds his day like an epoch

3. I called upon Homer and implored
Poetry from him, arranging lines of pearls

4. And glanced at Virgil, for the Romans' intoxication
With meanings that surpassed the smoothness of wine

5. And Amr ibn Kulthum, when he prodded the riding beasts
For maidens, saw your inspiration flowing

6. And you celebrated Ahmad Al-Mutanabbi
As he composed his poetry for Al-Mu'tazz

7. And instilled in Shakespeare the intellect
To compose poetry between prose and verse

8. You left not even a sip of wine
For a speck of talent to be sober

9. Or have you deserted a quarter where the Nile is a beloved companion
In it lives Bentures, once a poet of Egypt

10. O mistress of poetry, long has my estrangement, so return
All that is past must return, such is the rule of existence

11. Of suns and stars, the rising places
And pearls arranged in necklaces

12. For before man composed any verse
Bound by metres, you inspired shepherds with poetry that came

13. Rhythmic in metre, free of complexity
And you witnessed Egypt's wars and Ashour

14. And before Salih and Thamud
So you made Bentures recount the tales of war

15. In poetry on the rocks of the plateau
And saw Pharaoh pursuing Moses

16. When the soldiers drowned in the sea
And touched Miriam’s tongue until

17. She spoke among her people in song
Will you begrudge the glory of every lovesick one

18. Or bestow on me a gift of praise?