1. After long estrangement a mask of intimacy
With the approach of a beloved's phantom that bent close;

2. By my life and my parents' lives we cried to him,
"We'll ransom you with our mothers and fathers!"

3. A lewd fellow, when he ogles the chaste with a glance
Becomes for him the cause of going astray;

4. And his gardens temptation upon his lovers
With the wondrous beauty in them of soft voices;

5. White, tinged by redness, and red buds among them,
Like wine mixed with water, both together:

6. So they seemed to have come forth to us wearing
White mantles with red borders around them.

7. How can his glances and eyes be shunned
When they are highways for arrows to our hearts?

8. Wine has dyed his cheeks the color of my tears,
As though he weeps with weeping like mine;

9. How can the heart-inflaming one who shoots us
With the does' glances of his languid eyes be shunned?

10. O Lord of that slender fawn, who has filled
My heart with all that her body can contain!

11. You have rewarded my loyalty with estrangement,
And met my virtue with betrayal and disdain.

12. Your clouds have rained in the land of Salamiyah,
A shower generous from the truest clouds.

13. Land of gallantry, valor, and noble youths,
Home of every knight and hero bold and brave.

14. Kinds of flowers, gardens in clusters massed together,
Pure waters' sheen, the temperate air's caress;

15. Gazelles like swords, whose glances give us to drink
Deep draughts of lightning-flash and swordblade's gleam.

16. And when they pass the wine-cup round to companions
They sing the verses of Ibn Awis al-Ta'i.

17. Since I departed I've been parted from my bliss;
I left behind me joy and happiness.

18. From the island country I made my way
To a lonely place, far from allIGNorant men.

19. So every exquisite taste that comes from it
Seems mean, and every open space too cramped.

20. No, not the island country, but Damascus
Is my delight; increase of Euphrates' stream

21. Does not add to my pleasure; I remain
A prisoner, loving Manbij, not white (ar-Ragga).

22. If only someone would tell the noble ones
That after them I spend my nights with Virgo's stars!

23. Though you have left me I tend the pasture still;
But who, at such a distance from his folk, tends me?

24. The foolish one grew hot, and I said calmly,
"I long for those who dwell upon the heights."

25. My skill is sword-strokes, and my poetry's woven
With threads the other poets have spun out.

26. O God Who will unite us, constant,
In lasting honor and unbroken harmony!