1. I have a morning at the Tigris which envies its radiance
And deceit confirms my innocence about Zawra’

2. So unleash in Rusafa a string of pearls
Whose orphaned pearls have orphaned their pickers

3. You see me descending into Baghdad happily
Where the lion feels comfortable for those descending

4. Is the Abode of Peace sufficient for my peace
So this is the valley of grief, contracted within

5. I say to the baths that were melodious
With the floods of Karkh, bring back their voice

6. I hope the tragedy of Hussein will extend a hand
To sell me hope, so I buy it

7. A generous one who knows favor from him
With thousands and thousands of his bellowing

8. If he shakes off favor out of stinginess
Eyes of the greedy will bargain over it

9. I see the moon of the sky when it ascends
Waving with that honorable face

10. He has shown loyal, a full moon, so we said
The full moon of perfection has appeared to its beholder

11. Extraordinary is the pride of the son of fourteen
Resembling the moon, without equal he came

12. We sought him in time, hoping
So time yielded him to his seekers

13. We described him with every wonderous beauty
So he came perplexing his describers

14. How can blackness of nature suit him
More gentle than the breeze and what comes after it?

15. Difficulties will be paltry for him until
He removes the sickness from you and you ride it

16. Reproach the blame in him and restrain
For my heart does not obey its reproacher

17. You rebuke me while I have a stubborn heart
That disobeys the passion in it when reproached

18. Leave me, O critic, and believe my love
For I am not, O critic, claiming it

19. If I could, my longing would ride to him
But the riding animals are not up to it

20. Among people, I love refinement
A lover who chooses you and you choose him

21. Manners and merit make affinity between us
Like a meadow’s flower, pleasant for its picker

22. And we excel in poetry together naturally
It is pure gold for its examiner

23. Prepare a toast - it is the highest toast
That drinking in it is sweet for those who drink

24. And live, for time wanders greatly in you
And none of its wandering burdens you