1. O you whose heart is heavily burdened
And whose sleep is limited when night falls,

2. Entrusted to the whims of youth who disobey restraints!
To him belong Humaydah, a hostage never to be ransomed.

3. With a need never invoking choked passion
In a thicket amidst branches filled with singing,

4. When the companion of this sorrow called out, her speech
Was like a singing slave-girl with a lute.

5. When we met, while she complained
Of fickleness and broken vows,

6. From me to myself, forgetting her Lord’s guilt
When she soothed the afflicted heart with its heavy burdens,

7. I saw that she was ordered, when we met,
To be harsh and severe in her words.

8. I said “Listen! I ransom myself for you,
Do not gather blame and reproach from me.

9. By a pure oath, Allah knows it,
And is there any way left for me after my striving?

10. Or ask, if you are ignorant,
whether the free man breaks a vow after confirming it?”

11. I swear strong repeated oaths
Every day of the witnessed days,

12. By the Lord of the pilgrims and the Lord of creatures, it is obligatory
And I make her aware by easing and binding.

13. No ‘Umrah took us toward your land
Nor did any love other than yours, O Umm Dawood!

14. Were it not for my passion and my striving for your joy,
My religious practice and spiritual ascent would be little.

15. I did not tire my she-camel
Or task her with long journeys, her banners held in hand,

16. When the riders pass through it, after God
It guides them only a mother’s care and direction

17. In it the muddy-drinking wild ass loses his way to water
For its water is never brackish, neither by night nor when stored.

18.
The chief’s tent and the places of rest, it brings them together

19. With a thread of ostriches in which there is mourning, like blackness.
When it appears frightening to the coward of the tribe

20. The coward’s heart, and it sees no more after confusion,