1. They met after long separation
They could not restrain their flowing tears

2. The remnant of youths from whom
Only a few of the turns of time remained

3. What a stance you showed, more eloquent and quenching
Matured for adversity and relieving anguish

4. I weep for him who survived, happily and sadly
For he who nobly fell in battle

5. And met you, though he hid
And concealed from you, remembering the Sublime

6. Damascus appeared, so I looked
And my gaze returned to it wearily

7. Joy spread through me from its allure
As if I were drinking pure wine

8. Inspiration came to me at that time
When I summoned it, it was miserly

9. It was as if, when I sought my poetry
I determined my tears should speak

10. I was amazed as poetry appeared divine
So do not blame my rapture

11. I affix it to the throbbing of my heart
And send it as a shout or murmur

12. I sang to you with it a gentle tune
For some matter I put off the grave

13. Was it not a melody in the ear that stirs
And smooth as the water of Salsabil to taste?

14. Damascus, and I have no substitute for it
Nor will I change from the era of loved ones

15. I remembered you and its flames have a flash
That sends out from its sparks long trails

16. It has a glow that if a bird challenges
It throws it back even if it flew a mile high

17. And the bullets rained, so it was a torrent
Fiercely scathing, pouring heavily

18. And a sea of hell raged against me
Its waves swelling and becoming floods

19. If it touched a lofty palace
It collapsed turning it into ruins

20. So I rose against the structures ignorantly
Weeping for the lost homes and encampments

21. O you with inextinguishable stubbornness without disgrace
You were patient with harm, beautifully patient

22. Does not God know that my soul
Suffers sorrow and a troubling illness?

23. I found few of my loved ones remaining
Captive, exiled, or killed

24. They tested both defiance and peacefulness
And were in them the righter path

25. And tread with spilled blood a journey
That will give water after them to generations

26. If they are overcome for a clear right
It is not for the victor to be unjust

27. So how many conquerors lost high values
And many conquered built lasting glory

28. The winds of misfortune threw me from Damascus
The day after I neared the momentous event

29. The usurpers swaggered there and it was straitened
For me, so I could not find rest in it

30. And if I was pushed to submission
And did not bare for it a sharpened blade

31. I said "I turn away" and answered "No"
With full mouth and intended departure

32. I say and do not know what my fate is
Will I meet rationality or folly?

33. I resented the dreamers who seized our sanctuary
Evading the truth and withdrawal

34. And others who falsely turned against us
Stupidly, prejudiced, or cowardly

35. He did wrong to Arabism in its children
And quarrelled against the community disobeying the Messenger

36. The love of Syria persisted with me until
I returned emaciated and feeble to the sanctuary

37. So how many noble ladies smiled at my old age
And denied my bending over and frailty

38. She saw the mark of youth though
The sorrows threatening to end it

39. And the dawn of old age folding away my youth
And its brilliance, shading and darkening it

40. I regretted youth though it was a guest
I was a bad host so it intended departure

41. And I passed the thirties, those
Teeming with every exhausted revel

42. I see in the West peoples vying
With what dazzles the sights and minds

43. They have finished with the world, so they aspire
To the planets, seeking to reach them

44. They controlled the winds, so subjected them
To their command, gathering or dispersing

45. They rose to the center of the sky ascending
And the depths of the seas they plummeted descending

46. And what is beneath the soil they penetrated
And travelled over it lengthwise and widthwise

47. And they were not content with unseen knowledge alive
So they were given its knowledge through reasoning and saying

48. They see you from the furthest part of earth openly
And you hear the answerer or questioner

49. They respected the strong and deemed him so
And did not heed the weak and lazy

50. So if you contend for your call, then make
Your resolve, not your logic, the proof

51. And do not resort to softness when
You see softness does not avail the slain

52. If you take a risk in a momentous matter
You rode its danger, high and risky

53. And if you negotiated about an obvious right
To grant it, you sought the impossible

54. This beast is free in wilderness
So why blame us if we were shackled?