1. The songs pour out while I'm not at home
What secrets could they possibly contain?

2. Is it revelation descending from the heavens?
Or is it magic amongst the ruins?

3. No beauty perceived by hearing
Like beauty perceived by sight

4. Many a delicate singing voice
Prolongs my enchantment when I hear it

5. And it may fill hearts with delight
Like houses awash in light

6. It is the charmer of all demons
And all pure angels

7. How excellent is the electricity in singing
Its effect on nerves and blood flows nicely

8. The best singing arrives
From feeling in the heedlessness of thoughts

9. And if it doesn't arrive from feeling
It is chaff devoid of sweetness, ruins

10. Does the feeling of the great artist
Abound in a distant, calm valley?

11. And if the songs shake you, the songs
Are nothing but waves of that torrent

12. And when singing overflows, the soul surges
As if amidst a deluge

13. And sights remain fixed while hearing
Yearns for repetition

14. It's as if we see it through hearing
And call out through sight

15. And it's as if time goes by forgetfully
And place, altogether shy

16. The soul feels with it that it is in
A world other than that of burdens

17. A world without enemies or rancor
Or desire for vengeance

18. Send your gaze into the crowds and you see
What traces lie on the faces

19. How often joy or
Sorrow stirred a song on the lyre

20. It is kindled fire whose listeners
Imbibe the heat of that fire

21. He who sings rips open the wound
Like a doctor probing the seat of pain

22. The garden attained playfulness at last
After long awaiting playfulness

23. It came to him like a bird, so when it sang
The birds enlarged it

24. I heard it and when I heard it
I came out in wonder from the dens

25. One warble follows another
Like eruption coming after eruption

26. And the listeners were gladdened by a
Dialogue between it and the singer

27. As if the flowers in the garden
When listening to the dialogue

28. All the people in Iraq agree
On congratulating the genius and greats

29. The prince of song, whose musical
Miracles attest to his power

30. And if hearings were eyes
They would see a vision like miracles

31. Hear from Muhammad his singing
For he is foremost in his art of innovation

32. He is better than any who sings and stirs
His listeners, the best composer

33. He raises his voice loudly, then whispers gently
What he whispers to the strings

34. Many are novice in every art
But the competent are few

35. His fame and popularity are enough
For his leadership of the art

36. Egypt bore him, and how many men
Egypt bore who returned her glory

37. I fear not the demise of those songs
For they are for eternity, not demise

38. I deposited in them all your sorrows
So they seethed and signaled eruption

39. You breathed your eternal spirit into them
And they came like flaming infernos

40. They tell the woes of a wretched heart
Come complaining of the cruel time

41. And they tell the sighs of a bereaved woman
Struck by the loss of her only light like day

42. Listening to you sing them was a pleasure
And a gentle flight of birds

43. We yearned for a meeting but
Our wretched fate prevented meeting

44. Then Baghdad fell, so we welcomed
The wanderer planet

45. Then when you burst into song, we swayed
Like one intoxicated by a drink

46. Your sweet voice was once
Flooding every house from the phonograph

47. And whenever you raised your voice in Egypt
The rest of the cities reiterated

48. Each surpasses the other, for theirs is
Innocence from stumbling in every endeavor

49. O prince of song, yes, for we
Are infatuated by your magic art

50. O prince of song, you are to us
Worthy of praise and magnificence

51. Strum a tune that stirs your excellent
Singing, all the heart's strings

52. Whom your tune doesn't stir
Is hardened rock among rocks