1. Live O lightning, shine your flashes
And quench the covenant of the beloved towards destiny

2. Or pour it all into my tears that descend
To water with it the meadows full of wildlife

3. I have frequented it since the past
Always returning in the prime of youth

4. They took over every white fortified city
Covering the lovers with the knolls of hardship

5. And their limits were delighted the day they marched away
The stranger’s melancholy was happy with bliss

6. Who saw before it roaming gazelles
Swaying in the custody of mirages

7. And suns rising in the glow of dusk
And branches whispering in the hills

8. Among them the bloom of youth, blowing gently
Like the branch of arak, waving

9. With a cheek that almost makes the gardens of beauty
Blush, with buds of roses opened for picking

10. O cheeks like rose, O sweet mouth
The pleasure of visitors and passersby

11. O daughter of the hunt, why have your people not found
Solace in their songs, frequented roads?

12. They followed the rain cloud’s point of descent, but in your face
No rain comforts the well-trod path

13. Every valley you stayed in prospered
Why have they not replaced your valley with any valley?

14. The Bedouins were fortunate in your neighborliness until
Those present envied the luck of the nomads

15. The glorious dynasties envied the time
Distinguished by perfection, generosity abounding

16. The fragrant Majid, his fame spread
With the scent of his mention to the farthest cities

17. The virtuous, perfect in character, matchless
Unique, one of a kind

18. An essence that shone with wisdom in his youth
Illuminated like a flaming star

19. Say to the vine, “Can you count his great deeds?”
As if counting the stars in number?

20. The bucket sways confused in his hand
Proud of the sturdy, fruitful palm

21. Interpreter of rhetoric, shining from him
Is the white of meaning, black of ink

22. Illuminated as if drawing
From the fountains of eyes with kohl

23. Time promised wonders through his children
And we saw him true to his word

24. Thus the youth of poetry through the son of Shabaib
Returned after old age, excellent restorer

25. You, O knight of skill, have appeared
And touched the dust with your steeds

26. With speech that has bound the giants
You have composed the articulated joints of law

27. And an eloquence whose beauty lies in virtues
Evident in the logic of rhetoric

28. And strands like necklaces, most beautifully
Surpassing the necklaces of generosity

29. While the scope of analogy has narrowed until
We cannot match the excellence of his hands

30. A Babylonian breath that has mastered hearing
With comfort, and scorned the critic

31. Its power the hand of gentleness in intimacy
So judge with the craft of the armorer

32. Like beads of dew, harmoniously, and has
Flowed from a thought like beads off a rosary

33. O intimate friend, my life was purified
When you clarified for me the clear affection

34. I have not lived thanking you for the blessings
In which I attained my wants and purpose

35. Seeking more from you, though the keenest desire is
Thankfulness for generosity already received

36. Remain my future happiness, my present state
My past youth, of high pillars