1. Loneliness beckoned me, so I spent the night longing
Worries that won’t leave me be, wherever I turn

2. It comes visiting me, not visiting my people
It made this place its destination for visiting me

3. When I say it has kept away from me for a while
It renews its youth and doubles back to me

4. For my heart is the home it settles in
So my heart welcomes it and makes it feel at home

5. Doesn’t Allah know that my heart loves you
O lightning flash of Yemen, shining bright?

6. And I long to turn my eyes back towards you
Despite the preoccupations and worries that distract me

7. I looked and saw my two she-camels
Marching in line, journeying on through hardship

8. Heading to their resting place, and they are so close
Yearning for their loving owner, their reins igniting

9. I saw in the distant mirage, the light of a fire
Gleaming and rising up from its place

10. So my two friends likened it to the star Suhail
I said to them, look closely at what you see!

11. A fire someone lit up to misguide you
It only appears to you as lightning in Yemen

12. How could it be, when below it are the hills of Sala’
And the lightning rods point the way to its place?

13. It seems the wind lifts from its peak
Cloaks of purple brocade

14. And something that stirred me up, making me long even more
Was the cooing of two doves calling to each other

15. They called to each other in an incomprehensible melody
On two branches, one eastern and one western

16. So I shed tears without shame
And I was neither mean nor cowardly

17. I said to my friend, and I was saddened
By some of the birds, what saddens you?

18. They said: The homecoming is near at hand
I said: No, you are only wishing

19. And I said to my friend: Leave off blaming me
And stop criticizing me, make excuses for me

20. For it was clear that Sulaymah appeared in the East
While in the West, my strangeness admits no compromise

21. Doesn’t the night bring together Umm ‘Amr
And me, so that is an intimacy for us

22. Yes, and you see the crescent as I see it
And the day overwhelms her as it overwhelms me

23. So between our parting, nothing remains
But seven days left of Muharram, or maybe eight

24. O brothers of Jusham ibn Sa’d
Lessen your blame, if it will not benefit me

25. When you pass by the fronds of Hajar
And the valleys of Yamamah, cry out for me

26. To a people, if they hear of my death
Their youth and their elders will cry

27. And say: Juhdur has passed away a captive
Fearing the smooth Yemeni blade that would strike him

28. Fearing the injustice of al-Hajjaj without cause
For al-Hajjaj is not unjust to the righteous

29. Didn’t you see me, brother of wars
If I don’t commit sins, I’m accused of sin

30. So if I die, how many noble youths will weep
For me, well-mannered, cheap to please?

31. And every well-mannered and wise youth
Generous, noble, flawless

32. I have not yet paid off the debts I owe myself
Or the rights of the refined and sharp blades

33. Thus the arrogant in this life will be abased
Consumed by greed and hopes