1. Night and day are balanced,
And the cold season is nearing its end.

2. Winter has fallen into an abyss,
With no permanence or constancy.

3. O yellowness of death, overtake it
So the earth may don greenness.

4. As we have worn it, yet it did not protect us
From its motto or cloak.

5. No longer is there aught but the flash
That springs from its eye,

6. Or thunder that pounds my hearing,
As if its voice were muted.

7. O you who saw your heart lying slain,
Mockery was chanted over your head.

8. Do you not see the clouds on the day they passed
Pour down copious tears?

9. The rain does not cool my breast when it pours down
Even if the fruits have withered.

10. And if Tameem sings his praises
Or Nizar extols his name,

11. Where have warmth and light gone?
So that the veil be lifted from them,

12. Where have the birds and sandgrouse disappeared?
So that the dust be shaken from them.

13. How many days have passed over it
Wearing a garment of night on loan!

14. Its winds have given tidings of war,
So restlessness stirs in its atmosphere,

15. As if the winter sun were a gazelle
Whose nature is to flee and dart about,

16. Or the face of a maiden with languid eyes
Who thinks chastity is shameful.

17. Neither its full moon, if it appears, is luminous,
Nor its sun vibrant.

18. Nor are its plashes mirrors,
With vegetation encircling them like a frame.

19. How often has coal though it be coal
Become provisions no house lacked!

20. Each person is like a Magus before it
With a fireplace and flame.

21. Its stars have walked away in love,
And its sun has been dragged away by vapor.

22. When darkness descends in it we take cover
For the earth is empty of its people.

23. Each person passed the night imprisoned
In his house, barricaded all around.

24. Would that our lives were a fleeting spring,
However short they were!

25. I yearn for a group of people who,
Whenever heaven’s bride turns her abode,

26. Would walk the paths of the sun; for every season
Has a shrine to be visited.

27. How narrow were its paths with them! While for them
The seas poured forth their immensity.

28. Wealth has sweetened every atmosphere
So there is no cold or gloom.

29. Yet he who is betrayed by his hopes
Remains wretched in both states.