1. Arise, lament and chant the traits of those who were
Events and eras have passed over their imprint

2. This endless parchment is an incomparable book
Its tattered pages still bear a title

3. Religion, revelation, and ethics are an aspect of it
The rest is worldly life and illusion

4. If its jewels were someday overturned
They would be nothing but whims of a repudiator and intellects

5. The Banu Umayya did not unlock tidings
Nor did they master tales or become compliant

6. Kings whom the throne of the Orient was under them
Did you ask the throne of the Occident what they were?

7. Lofty as the sun at the edges of its dynasty
A sovereign and sultan in every direction

8. Oh, woe to my heart no matter what afflicts their images
Or if sorrow or passions revisit it

9. Yesterday, I lamented them at Az-Zahra
Today, my tears are flowing freely at Al-Faiha

10. In the land, they are heavens and citadels
Brilliants, landmarks, breezes, and eagles

11. The mines of glory, even if the worthless dust disdained them
They would not be disdained

12. If not for Damascus, Toledo would not have been
Nor would Baghdad flourish with the Abbasids

13. I passed by the grieved mosque, asking it
Is Marwan in the prayer hall or mihrab?

14. The grieved mosque has changed and freemen and slaves differing
At the pulpits

15. The call to prayer is no call if His praise is exalted
Nor is the call a call

16. I believe in God and exclude His heavens—
Damascus is a soul, gardens, and basil

17. The friends said when their imaginations roved
The land’s home is Al-Faiha and its orchard

18. It bid us welcome there with coolness
As the Gardens welcome you without eternity

19. I entered it—its margins emeralds
The sun above the surface of the water, staffs

20. And the houris in Damascus and around its pillar
Houris revealing a leg and young lads

21. Rabwa Valley in a fluttering dress
The leg covered and the bosom bare

22. The birds warbling behind the eyes therein
For the eyes have tunes as the birds do

23. The land presented varying vegetation
Its fruits are colors and hues

24. When Al-Barada had cleared for the wind, it snatched
At tents whose margins are branches

25. Then it bent, not ceasing to flow or
To dry out at the lower parts and trellises

26. I left Lebanon—the Gardens of Bliss—and I was not
Informed that the road to eternity is Lebanon

27. Until I descended unto thriving Al-Faiha
Wherein are dew, winding valleys, and grass

28. I lodged among its lively youths
Whose forefathers in the spring of life were Ghassan

29. The white lineages that remain in them are game
Of a servant of the sun, even if crowns did not last

30. O youth of the Levant—never-ending thanks
If only gratitude would requite gratitude

31. No hand surpasses yours on the day of generosity
Nor homelands among mortals like yours

32. God adorned it for you—did He allot it wardens from you
And gardens?

33. Uphold the kingdom for it and build a pillar of its dynasty
For kingship is planting, renewal, and building

34. If time brought back one who laments what was lost to him
The bereaved one would turn to sobbing

35. Kingship is that you do what you can
And perfection appears upon the deeds

36. Kingship is that wealth springs forth vigorously
For a purpose wherein is reform and prosperity

37. Kingship is under a tongue surrounded by literary culture
And under a mind flanked by wisdom

38. Kingship is that you empathize in passion for a homeland
Wherein creeds and faiths have parted

39. Sincere advice filled with sincerity
For pure advice is religion and faith

40. Poetry that is not a memento, emotion,
Or wisdom is only meter and prosody

41. We in the Orient—eloquence is a relative
We in agony and pain—are brethren