1. Why is the poetry of the dark poet
As white as the bright dawn?

2. I searched and searched for a word
Obscene in it, but found none

3. In it of the strength that
The Nile's water softened, and al-Kawthar

4. Like a flower, except it is eternal
Like the eternity of the Great Pyramid

5. The dark one revived in his poetry
The era of Abi al-Tayyib and al-Buhturi

6. And built for the Nile in his verses
What no skilled hand built before

7. Your poetry, O dark one, in its nearness
Is far from the flower and the buyer

8. I wondered, O friend, at a friend who recited
Your intoxicating poems, and did not get drunk!