1. By chancing upon their tribe-parts, I saw you rugged,
And found your visit’s neighborhoods parched and bitter.

2. Though you are confined amidst dilapidation, my tears for you
Have been imprisoned till death, an inmate.

3. So it would seem as if, before, they were neighbors
Around you, the wicked giants and lowly.

4. And I see your pastures desolate afterwards,
After you had been familiar company, a boon companion.

5. Does separation think I am unaware of it
When its hands have touched, grabbed at me directly?

6. A herd that straying stars have struck hobbled
They had been gleaming, radiant pearls.

7. Whites whose eyes circle toward Sibā,
As if by it they understand astronomy’s secrets.

8. And as if he had gifted his daisies to
Their gardens through him—Abū Qābūs.

9. You were given the delights of everything
Embroidered and beautiful in youth immutably.

10. Were it not for its novelty, since I see no
Throne for it, I’d have thought it Bilqīs.

11. Oh Damascus! For you have contained splendors
Through Abū l-Mughīth and esteemed ancient wonders.

12. And I see time tomorrow become sullen of face toward you
When it had been smiling and was now sulky.

13. Those bellies were blessed, those backs sanctified
Through its nearness, sanctified with sanctity.

14. So a craft is pursued and a case is pleaded
And a great thing gets done and a wound is bandaged

15. Now it has become, for hypocrisy, wide open
Eyes that, before you, had been bashfully lowered

16. And you left that land obscure shadows
After it had almost become a quagmire

17. They were not aware until you rose upon them
A full moon rending the pitch-black darkness

18. There is in the stars nothing but fabricated nonsense
Established and founded on falsehood as its basis

19. Indeed, kings are our stars which
Hide and rise more fortunate or ill-omened

20. There were tribulations whose darkness, after
They had extended their eyes and heads toward it, deceived

21. A war whose army is the cream of its daybreak
And the cream of its sunset is the Kurdish forces

22. The love of a man whose soul therein, when
The owner of the turban loves food and clothing

23. What a difference between a people whose expenditures
Are wealth, and a people who expend souls

24. The son of Ibrāhīm Mūsā walked a path
For which time settled and was tranquil

25. So he anchored the coast of Shām and spread out
His palms wrongdoing that did not cease to be trampled

26. The city of ‘Asqalān had been its bride
So, through his conduct, Damascus became the bride

27. After Hunaydah had become an old ruin
And shining Naḍlā’ had become bags

28. So it was as if with the calf they had erred an epoch
And as if, when Mūsā came to them, [he was] Mūsā

29. And favors will be thanked that were done, and there are no
Favors like the favors that saved from the kisses (of swords)

30. He twists to humiliate the unyielding, if he confronts him
And he softens his side, if he be led

31. And for that reason, none were made their chief
Unless his resolve had first been tested, supervised

32. One who, when the smells of Thursday heat his nostrils, is undaunted—
That one will lead on a Thursday.

33. Give over rule from your hands, for you will not cease
To be called “the chief” before you are called “chief.”

34. What will you do, and before you a snake
That attacks the lions, and behind you, a staff?

35. Two lions roared from Damascus, and they humbled
The most unassailable of cities, Ḥimṣ

36. They took Qanā for something vile, so if a rebel rebels
They transferred him to the place for that vile thing.

37. Quench the flock from your sweetness, which,
If it were water, would have been drunk to repletion

38. Indeed, affability and dew are better for them
Than a chaste woman who has cloistered herself upon you

39. If the causes of chastity without piety
Had benefited, they would have benefited Iblīs!

40. These rhymes have come to you, plucked
Taking the forms of censure and fraud

41. From every trite thing that leaves thereafter
For men’s share of the poem miserable pickings

42. And novel meanings—for the meanings that
Ears suffer with have been insipid

43. They play with the urgency of their beauty and count it
A hook for the wonders of time, precious

44. From the inkpot of speech that has not ceased
To beguile you, its sturdy composition has been imprisoned

45. Like a star: if you travel, it will keep pace
And if you camp, it will be a companion

46. We have sent poetry alone toward you
And if you permit us, we will send troops

47. You seek your firebrand when the mouths of short spears
Make the inciter of tumult, the announcer, vile