1. I quenched my thirst in Beirut's valleys and meadows
The spirit of Beirut, its neighborhoods and thickets

2. When a longing soul breathes in its scent
The resident of the two abodes is transported back to Mustafa

3. Or when a hungry wolf provokes a pack of sand
My heart stops the flow of yearning in its tracks

4. They smile with a pearl that an oyster has concealed
While an eloquent mouth needs no oysters

5. When artistry and grace adorn me
I find eternal gardens of enveloping beauty

6. From every silent ankle comes forth
The speech of veils, saturated and snatched

7. When she walks slowly or hurriedly towards you
She divides rods and sceptres for you

8. Or when she tasks herself with short steps
Her swaying braids shake out rhythms

9. Shaking from her sides or her middle
While the bending branch shook neither centers nor edges

10. A subtle grace from God apportioned
To whom He wills, and God has increased its circulation

11. A curled white rose its locks spilling down
The slope of cheeks, the valley of hills below

12. My imagination envisions at that sight
As if the prince of beauty himself has arrived

13. If the journey was difficult across his chest
My emanating soul pursued him desperately

14. I say to the guide heading
Through the terrain's descents, take to loftier heights

15. It suffices me, I've removed the cloak of captivation from my shoulders
And inclined to the emancipator my yielding slopes

16. Glory and the sublime carry me to a banner
Firm in glory and sublimity's slopes

17. I meet it in my days and hours of time
Fearful even in safety, or safe even when afraid

18. If destiny ever fails me or the rain clouds dry up
The seasonal downpour suffices as a successor

19. He meets the two fifties fully equipped
With an Indian sword and a quivering spear

20. O son of the most noble Hashimite lineage
And the most generous of all peoples in munificence

21. And the highest climbers who have reached the heavens' ceiling
And the foremost tied to the stars' summits

22. You who has conquered wealth by your charity
And prevailed over all peers and allies through time

23. Extravagant with pure gold to the wronged
And destructive of dry timber to the oppressed by your cleansing

24. If it is said you are excessive in your nobility
You have exceeded all in generosity and kindness

25. Where you cry out to guests, "welcome!"
You add guests to guests endlessly

26. How many seekers of your nobility missed their chance
As your munificence did not restrict or limit

27. And one who tries to fully capture you in description, I said to him
"Make your descriptions shorter, for the highest descriptions fall short"

28. The noble soul flows in the path of the righteous ancestors
Give him free rein and the branch flows like those roots came before

29. He is the thoroughbred unrestricted at full gallop
While the mixed stock falls behind by the racetrack

30. Abundant in the sciences of an immense ocean swelling
Studded with precious pearls streaming copiously

31. It plunges whether into meanings to extract
What is fresh or into words gathering blossoms

32. O they who allow me not the meanings of times
That make pens into destructive swords

33. I forgave them though I tried them out as rods
That I extracted from refined Indian steel

34. Loyal brothers when the honored one wavered
I saw them strike the flints of munificence without pause

35. Among them are many a relative I wished that
Even if we parted, the love between us will not wane

36. I recalled their virtues in days of intimacy
And did I forget them in the long separation?

37. I yearn for that lofty abode they inhabit
With a longing multiplied by longings manifold

38. If I could I would have left horses barefoot
Traveling by night and left the night a lit candle

39. Who can prevent me by the valleys of birds at dawn?
My determination does not wane by their dissuading cries

40. I do not blame a worker if the rainclouds are absent
There is still lightning probing the clouds for rain