1. Come, let us offer greetings to the lips
Do you not see a smile upon the lips?

2. Do you not feel as if the hands of a loved one
Have soothed for you troubles and illnesses?

3. As if the steps of the waves are the steps of a beloved
As if the waves are hearts that long for each other

4. Greetings, O bride of the water, I
Love you, I do not wish more than to linger by you

5. I go to meet you, fervent with yearning
And I leave your shores, filled with passion

6. I see you, my soul and heart are kindled
As if I had been given to drink of wine by you

7. And if the carpet is rolled up before my eyes
The image of my dear friends of old remains with me

8. And if time makes my cup of love spill over
I forget not the cupbearer nor the revelry

9. My heart, get up, let us remember a longing
For a rock near the towering peak

10. Come, do not say this is inanimate
And how can you seek refuge in a rock?

11. How many a living heart is deaf
Disguised, ignoring, pretending not to see

12. And how many a rock has sensed what we sensed
And though knowing not speech or words

13. And how many a strong, mighty man
Battling fiercely, charging boldly

14. Faced events uncaring
Whether blades or arrows assailed him

15. But if he were reminded of the ruins of Time
You would see the world darken in his eyes

16. And the great tremor would seize him, and the armies of patience
Would be routed in defeat

17. By your Lord, O lights, what
Have you done with one accustomed to the darkness?

18. By your Lord, O waves, you dashed
Upon the shores ceaselessly

19. I came to you seeking solace
And chanting peace in your regions

20. I see you, and you inspire in me new longing
When I had hoped to mend the past

21. I wavered, and my fortitude failed me, else
Why should this burning tear be my badge?

22. O homeland of consolation, how can I forget
My time in you, as youth or as a lad

23. And the day I came to you, depressed and ill
Feeling exile approaching and the loss of friends

24. Dragging in you my legs, heavy and slow
Gathering from my will but remnants and debris

25. And my affliction and illness so great
Draining my blood and corroding my bones

26. I see you, and I care not for death
I thank you, as my end comes by your shore

27. And how my friends wandered and left me
Like visitors, they passed by me with courtesy

28. Life passes me by, and I know not
If a day has passed or I spent a year

29. I knew you as winter spread its shade
And scattered its clouds about your sides

30. I knew you as summer blazed over you
And the sun's orb burned fiercely

31. I knew you as storms raged angrily in you
Spreading darkness over your brows

32. I knew you as the boats in you were white
Winged creatures, rivaling doves

33. I knew you calm, as dawn lay asleep
As if the sea had barricaded it and it slumbered

34. I knew you as a friend, in every state
You were the drink of my soul and its food

35. Your salt is in my blood, your scent is lasting
This voice I hear always

36. Come, rock of the past, answer me
Does your standing and waiting have a purpose?

37. You suffered from the waves as we suffered
From the days, buffeting and collision

38. As if you were a target for all
And the throngs seek a monumental task

39. If they fail, they disperse, solitary
And if they resolve, you find them a horde

40. My heart, if the nights change,
Who, like you, tends the resolve in them?

41. We reached the Kaaba of hopes, so bow down
And let us worship in its ritual motions

42. Take provender from the silent rock
Why do you expect welcome from a rock?

43. By your Lord, where are fanciful dreams
And a life we spent slumbering?

44. And a pact that was in you a spring of roses
As lovely and harmonious as this day?