1. O my deep regret, I can barely endure,
Its end is disturbing, its beginning ailing,

2. Alone in Damascus, abandoned,
In the hands of enemies, her illness worsening.

3. She clasps her bosom over burning embers,
Extinguishing them while worries ignite them,

4. If she finds peace, where can she find it?
A memory disturbs her when she is tranquil.

5. She asks the traveling caravans insistently,
With tears that can barely be contained,

6. O you who saw her fortress of Khirshana,
With feet bound in shackles like a captive lion.

7. O you who saw the roads lofty for me,
Without meeting the beloved, their longest,

8. O you who saw my shackles fastened
Upon the beloved of my heart, their heaviest.

9. O you two riders, can you carry
A soft whisper to ease its burden?

10. Tell her if she comprehends your words,
That the memory of me will overwhelm her.

11. O my nation, these are our dwellings
We leave them sometimes and lodge in them.

12. O my nation, these are our watering holes
We roil them sometimes and draw from them.

13. Our people surrendered us to misfortunes,
The easiest of them lethal in hearts.

14. After us they replaced men of corruption,
Who wish for the lowest of my heights.

15. Shackles cannot touch my feet,
And in following your approval, I bear them.

16. O master, no act of generosity is counted
Unless easing her is its perfection.

17. Do not wipe yourself dry when water reaches you,
While others accept the inferior and take it.

18. The sons of my uncle will not fail you
If the lion returns, so will its cubs.

19. You are the sky and we are its stars,
You are the land and we are its mountains.

20. You are the raincloud and we are its rain,
You are the hand and we are its fingers.

21. With what excuse did you spurn devoted souls
With no recourse but you in the world?

22. She came to you to find shelter—reject one
And people wait to see how you will lock her out.

23. You allowed me a generous gift, hoping
You would have mercy though she despaired.

24. If you did not pay her ransom,
I never ceased to please you and pay it.

25. How can you neglect that affection?
How can you overlook those promises?

26. Those pacts you tied with us—
How can you, once binding them, now loose them?

27. Why sever ties of kinship with you
When you constantly kept connecting them?

28. Where are the noble traits known of you?
You speak of them always yet ignore them.

29. O vast of abode, how do you expand it
While we are in a rock we shake?

30. O wearer of fine robes, how do you change them
While our garb is wool we do not change?

31. O rider of steeds, if you could see us
Bearing our halters, carrying them on our backs.

32. You saw in ordeal faces that brought you nobility
While the most beautiful of you lost his beauty.

33. Time has worn their charms—
You recognize them sometimes and sometimes not.

34. So do not leave us reliant in this on anyone
Who excuses it, reforms it, and worsens it.

35. Let no one open the door of generosity
And while its owner implores, bolt it shut.

36. Is generosity without you fitting for her
When you are its pillar and its bearer?

37. You, if an immense calamity befalls,
Are its alternative, its transformer.

38. From you the greatest obtained excellence,
From you the attainment of gifts is smoothest.

39. If we seek from other than you, knowing
After abandoning hope, we ask of them.

40. When we see the most generous to her
Neglect her, disregard her intentionally.

41. No tribe of people remains known
Except the prince’s nobility embraces it.

42. We have the greatest right to his compassion
So where, where is its straightener?

43. O spender of wealth, desiring through it
Only lofty deeds which immortalize it.

44. You have begun bestowing generosity and favor
Our ransom—you know—its greatest.

45. God accepts no supererogatory act before
An obligatory one which you perform devotedly.