1. Do you remember Su’da or did her image come to you?
Or did the wind blow her scent to you from the north?

2. You would not have been deceived by fanciful hopes and their misguidance,
Were it not for the separation between Su’da and your love for her.

3. Indeed this separation has undone the knot of my patience,
On an eve when she prepared for departure.

4. When the camel litters were loaded for travel, it led me
To a place inhabited by Su’da’s tribe, their beauty.

5. I will make my cheek a stepping stone for her mount,
If her slipping feet bring it near out of weariness.

6. But who can help me win her favors which are unlawful for me?
Eyes of protectors whose lawful rights I cannot infringe.

7. I am not one who fears death if it comes
With what brings man closer to his inevitable fate.

8. I did not forget her when she turned away, while my tears
Showed her the sunset of weeping and its descent.

9. I would have followed her in travel like a captive soul,
To God, if the reunion were difficult to attain.

10. Oh, grief for she who departed, O mother of Malik!
My anguish has flared up in those left behind.

11. I ask the ruins insistently out of yearning
For the far one, if asking could avail.

12. As for our nights which have passed away,
In them the lasting disease was healed by union with her!

13. The minister Muhammad al-Sallad has arrived,
So good times have come, and union with her.