1. No sun is brighter than a leg with a trace of danger,
Sweet are the traits which make its spit dangerous,

2. Slender of body, honeyed of touch, supple,
Alive are the wraps when I whisper to it secretly,

3. Its figure is attributed to the moons of meadows,
And its face to the full moons, when traveling,

4. If it stands for a day amongst the seated, you'd think
It's cloaked with the eyes of people and wearing robes,

5. Give me the cup over its cheek's basil,
To pretend for the night that I'm drinking magic,

6. Don't yearn for any land but Egypt, for what
Sweetest yearning than for a land free of discontent,

7. Its soil is gold and its Nile is wonder,
Its people are cubs and its boys are hair,

8. She's the mother who with her desolation never
Bore or gave birth except to noble blacks,

9. She's the one whose crown is sought by Caliphs
And we've never found one worthy of it among men,

10. Wherever you turn you see fruits and water in it
And lit villages, and villages shining bright,

11. With a scholar working or a singer singing,
Quickening the cups or making the strings speak,

12. Sublime, the light of Ibn Sami lit all lamps
And said: O night, dawn is here, so be gone!

13. The universe shone from the radiance that stunned it,
The shining of his justice and good judgment,

14. He's the minister who brought joys wherever stationed
And seized distresses and sorrows away,

15. Known for his gifts which hopes have lived by,
Gifts that made stinginess expire and perish,

16. The one who sheathed swords when fear peaked,
And generosity resided in villages giving them life,

17. None of the sharp swords he possesses
Attacks except the forehead of an oppressor or blasphemer,

18. No lion with readings of protection spells
Or walls can stand against his awe,

19. With him I recalled my home and apartments
And fortune of Egypt and my noble people,

20. And said: Would that my eyes hadn't seen nomads
In Damascus, resembling its bovine riffraff,

21. And that after Nile water, my she-camel's mouth
Hadn't tasted the brackish water of Barada River,

22. It's the fates, not Egypt, that ordered us
To live in Damascus with its ruler that commanded us,

23. As if they knew my plight and dwelling
And sent the master of ministers to bring me joy,