1. Art is a lovely untroubled garden
And you are its nightingale, Umm Kulthum

2. You are more capable than anyone of composing melodies
With rhythms that make the soul yearn after singing

3. I fear being exposed if I express passion
For I am an imperfect old man

4. Question the people before blaming me, O reproacher
Then after that, O my critic, blame me

5. Do not alarm the innocent maiden with my words
For the arrows of my passion are not poisoned

6. The phonograph has preserved voices you sang with
And traveled around region after region

7. You have united the songs after their separation
Leaving no group unassembled

8. O Umm Kulthum, I am thankful that
You came like a star above the horizon

9. Do you hear the poetry I recite with love?
O Umm Kulthum, you have my admiration and respect

10. Do not think I have spoken with undue familiarity
That is not my nature or my way

11. O Umm Kulthum, sing, for love is a melody
That pleases both the old and the youth alike

12. Sing, sing loudly to the strings
For it is through songs that nations arise

13. Because of your soft voice that we hear
O Umm Kulthum, the crowds gather and swell

14. Your stirring voice excites them
Like the roaring sea with clashing waves

15. Sing, for after our night has ended
The lights will smile upon our faces

16. As if we were at war, attacked
By joys and sorrows now retreating

17. Sing to us, then sing again, for our night
Is one where emotions collide in hearts

18. Singing draws me irresistibly
Though my steps walk the road of death

19. Beauty heard is like beauty seen
No song brings boredom to them

20. Both seek to possess the heart
Which in man is divided between them

21. Man cannot fully enjoy life and pleasure
Unless both hearing and seeing delight him

22. Rejoice in your world and indulge in beholding it
For after it you will see no sun or moon

23. Why did you waste your soul missing its chance?
Do not blame what has passed you by

24. What misgivings do you have in an age we live in
Of a poet whose heart proclaims openly?

25. They said I blasphemed, but I did not, as they claimed
Does one who speaks the truth blaspheme?

26. How excellent is beauty whose blossoms diffuse fragrance
And how excellent is love whose embers scatter sparks

27. The laden date palm may drop me soft ripe dates
For I pelted its fruit stalks with pebbles

28. No good in a laden date palm that bore fruit
Yet dropped none of its fruit below

29. I am in a garden whose flowers are arranged
As if they are peacock tails

30. While a nightingale above his nest
Sings his melodies after the heat of day

31. O Umm Kulthum, sing, for when
Singing departs, its impact remains

32. O Umm Kulthum, you revived the wishes in us
After despair that pained us for a while

33. O Umm Kulthum, I am a nation that suffered
Eras under calamities, so comfort us

34. O Umm Kulthum, despair kills us
If you refuse while hopes give us life

35. You shouldered what the youths could not bear
A task no twenty-year-old did for a seventy year old

36. I entered my hell before the hereafter
And tasted bitter aloes in life

37. O star that appeared in the Iraqi sky
We greet you in crowds, so greet us

38. You sent a radiant light in its rays
Through which we see fleeting beauty

39. O Umm Kulthum, greet us with your singing
Like angels greet both us and our demons

40. Yes, we went mad with a melody you sang
And before that we were not insane

41. What is on me if in my old age
I flirt with none but the winking eyed coquette?

42. I have respect for conventions in life
And do not replace assumptions with percepts

43. I am a man of doubt, no faith binds me
To good, if it is something intangible

44. How excellent is a garden whose flowers are arranged
As if they are peacock tails

45. And excellent is the nightingale above his nest
Singing his melodies after the heat of day

46. And excellent is Umm Kulthum when she starts
To sing and play with minds and feelings

47. I am in a paradise of art, close
Whose fruits I praise and hallow

48. And there is many a devil trying to
Seduce me with tricks from his paradises

49. I seek refuge in God my Lord, for He protects me
If I seek His aid from every demon

50. O Umm Kulthum, poetry's lineage
Is to singing like the sun is to a lamp

51. Sing with beautiful poetry and save
An old man from worries that depress him

52. Sing and sing until dawn appears
And the night leaves with all its darkness

53. O Umm Kulthum, the matter is shared
If I am silent, we do not agree

54. O Umm Kulthum, comfort us with your singing
For after days we will part

55. You rose after waiting that nearly killed us
Like a star in the sky of art, shining

56. How beautiful is art that has let down its tresses
And the star of art from which light emanates

57. We waited with burning passion
Nearly perishing from its heat

58. Sing for us, then sing again, for we are a band
Who vie in singing when it sounds sweet

59. And we will seize these fleeting hours
For I do not trust the purity of fate

60. They said singing nourishes the soul and revives it
And they spoke truthfully in describing it

61. How much crookedness in people it corrects
And how many manners in people it refines

62. Princess of art, I am one of your subjects
Who erected this laughing weeping statue for your singing

63. In your voice art has found its happiness
For it kisses you everyday

64. The phonograph used to relate your voice to us
So excellent was the storyteller and the story

65. I never imagined until you came being gracious
That God would combine our world with yours

66. O mother of Umm Kulthum, the people are passionate for you
Who could love a nation that adores you?

67. Whenever we longed for an emotion
We wished for nothing but meeting you

68. That is a wish that tempts doubts
Like a beautiful rose among thorns

69. And many a asker weeps to me,
Having seen me weep after your absence,

70. Saying “What made you cry in your thoughts?”
I said “This is what makes you cry in your soul”