1. O homeland, homeland, the dew rains down on you
And your garden quivered and swayed in the soil

2. You were clothed in the garments of life like a lion
Whose nose disdains its den as a lion would

3. A ruined abode I brooded over, questioning it
Until its quarter for me became like a mosque

4. I lingered reciting verses to it and reciting to its people
While sadness teased me, whether reciting or being recited to

5. Watering your pact which, had it not been,
My heart would not have been devoted to youth

6. Passion’s halt was not given passion’s due
A victim of passion whom passion made forbearing

7. A youth whose heart sorrows had promised
That if you fail him, they would keep their tryst

8. Why do you act shyly with separation?
The lover’s skill is to act with shyness

9. My friend in Damascus, you are no friend to me
If you do not smooth the way for cares

10. Bring the camel-litter near and make it comfortable
As long as the road is smoothed and passable

11. Your camel continued till nightfall brought it
To the sons of ʿAbd al-Karīm it came wandering

12. How they shone like the moon whose deeds
Are a moon and a bright coin outvying the full moon

13. Exultant in fright, finding pasture when
The miserly palm-fibre robe becomes too patched

14. Whoever took Ahmad as refuge or blamed him
God is Ahmad, then Ahmad, then Ahmad

15. He who in praise opposed the friend
Became a foe to the friend, an aid to the enemy

16. I exhausted poetry in praise of him
Who prevailed until he almost exhausted the poets

17. Wrathful resolve in noble deeds left
No glory in his day for which it tomorrow called

18. You have excelled in pursuing the heights, alone,
Proceeding obscured or distinct

19. Amazing that you are unharmed by a loneliness
In which you have continuously remained solitary

20. And I the ransom when lances engage
For you, and of lances you have the ransom of my life

21. You are unharmed, and still we hope
Our hopes in you are unharmed from decline

22. How often you came in the fray on a shining day
While war brought a day darkened

23. You attacked, valor was not hindered
Nor did your fellows see in you a place of retreat

24. Why do you sheathe the sword you are girt with
Until its blade desires to be sheathed

25. Alas! Glory does not abandon the glorious
Even if it abandons a seeker, especially one whose mount is the dew

26. How could what you sought elude you
When your manner is to give generously and be praised

27. When you renounced, you renounced gathering wealth
Yet you desired it and so renounced it even more

28. Wealth, I am weary, not secure
From the blows of your open hand, whether correcting or corrupting

29. You are more generous than your giving, competing
Your help more generous than your enemy competing

30. May Tayyi’ not lose you, for rarely
Has your clan lost a generous, noble horseman