1. O you who set ablaze the zeal of my heart with your affection,
And made its veins a homeland for it,

2. You sent me verses that delighted me,
And to begin with kindness is the best favor.

3. I strutted around in wonder at their beauty,
Like one quenching thirst with clear wine.

4. They were gentle and graceful, adorned
With eloquence and embroidered metaphors.

5. With their prose and verse they related a tale,
With letters that adorned a meadow and garden.

6. They flowed on the train of robes that adorned them,
Having adorned beauty itself with more beauty.

7. They appeared, veiling the face of amber,
Leaving the sons of Luqayt stunned.

8. Ibn Hilal looks upon them by evening,
Telling his father of the flaws he endured.

9. So too does Abdel Hamid, who by morning
Became a slave, dragging the rags of laziness.

10. They came while your slave was immersed in his ailment,
Yet they left him healed, in the best of states.

11. How could they not banish illness from my body,
When they carried the spirit and basil in youth?

12. If their specter were to return and visit us,
Perhaps it would come by now and then.

13. So be at peace, O trustee of the faith, excelling
The slander of poets and the fornicator.

14. Let not events pass you by, nor befall
The land you inhabit, O highest of humanity.