1. Are they the gleaming blades of swords or the radiance of carnelian gems?
They shone gently for us, the serene brilliance of lightning.

2. The travelers bowed their necks to it submissively,
With the roar of a grieving lion and the piercing gaze of lightning.

3. And in the flickering of lightning there is a sign for yearning -
It indicates what is hidden in the heart of every lover.

4. Eyelids overflow with cascading tears,
And breasts reveal hearts that ache.

5. How can anyone but the initiated understand the secret of passion,
And recognize the meaning of longing unless they have experienced separation?

6. By the passion that has tormented me since the bloom of youth faded,
I am lost in the intoxication of the first pangs of ardent love!

7. My sojourn in exile in Sarandib is enough -
I have cast off the garments of worldly attachments.

8. Whoever aspires to the glory of nobility must have patience
To face death and traverse perilous straits.

9. If days have choked my ambitions,
And misfortunes have assailed me with sudden calamities,

10. No tribulation has changed my character,
Nor any deception turned me from my ways.

11. Rather, I remain as I desire,
Which angers my enemies and gratifies my friends.

12. So my sadness at separation from a beloved friend
Is like my joy at separation from a spiteful enemy.

13. Such is the state I am in, and survival is a prize
Snatched from deceitful people and the cunning world.

14. O you who reproach me in your ignorance
Not knowing I am a pearl to the discerning!

15. Shun the vulgar and withdraw into solitude,
For nobility lies not in clever rhetoric.

16. I am not one whose spirit accepts humiliation
Or is content with what satisfies all sycophants.

17. When a man does not rise to what brings him glory,
He lives in futility among old maids.

18. What life can one have if fate turns against him
And he does not take hold of the reins of destiny?

19. The laurels of glory are only for the valiant -
When resolved, their determination dispels all darkness.

20. Some say I have rebelled and withdrawn,
But those are false accusations not in my nature.

21. Rather, I called for justice seeking
God's pleasure, and roused people of principle.

22. I commanded right and forbade wrong,
Which is the duty over all mortal souls.

23. If my disobedience was a sin, then my intention
Was to obey my Creator in rebelling.

24. How can advocating consultative rule be harmful to me
When it offers guidance to all who seek truth?

25. Indeed, it is an obligatory command from God
Binding on every living soul, driven or driving.

26. How can one be truly free and refined
Yet accept whatever an evildoer decrees?

27. If the people deal treacherously with religion,
Then know I am not of the hypocrites.

28. Though I did not cease to advise a people
Whose treachery refused to accept the words of an honest man.

29. They saw fit to tyrannize the people by force, so they rushed
To violate what had been established by legal covenants.

30. When an army faction arose pursuing shelter
Beneath the darkness of the clouds,

31. And the townspeople rallied around them, hastening
To join them, coming and going,

32. Seeking fulfillment from the kingdom's guardian
Of what he had promised the people with honesty,

33. But the rulers refused, persisting
While the seekers of truth were hindered from agreement,

34. Some people bartered the shame of misguidance for guidance,
Hypocritically selling their faith for a pittance.

35. So they came to support their misguidance
With the deception of a betrayer and the cunning of a thief.

36. When they felt secure in the land, and saw
The inability of its lawyer to defend it and its covenants,

37. They remained and said: “This, O people, is our land,
And none of us are foreign to it.”

38. They pillaged it, expelling any who might resist them,
That was one of their terrible calamities.

39. The Nile Valley woke to pillage, and its
Feeble Emirate became the jest of rebels.

40. This is the plain truth, so do not ask
Anyone but me, for I know the facts.

41. O Egypt, may God extend your shade, and may you be watered
By the Nile in torrents ever bursting!

42. The hand of the north wind has never ceased
To pluck your aromatic buds that soothe all who breathe.

43. You are the sanctuary of my people, the refuge of my clan,
And playground of my peers where feats are contended!

44. The place where my youth encamped, its banners unfurled,
And where the glory of my ancestry took root.

45. When the flights of my imagination take shape,
You appear to my eyes beautifully arrayed.

46. I left behind honored and noble people,
And a neighborhood whose dawn greeted me daily.

47. I abandoned the sweetness of life after their loss,
And bid farewell to the prime of my exuberant youth.

48. Will days allow me to meet them again,
And in life, will an ardent lover reunite with the one he longs for?

49. By my life, the pining has grown long, and ties
That once held strong have been severed.

50. If time has been unkind, though its fortunes shift,
Then know I am the first to have faith.

51. Affairs may yet be set right after going astray,
And every exile return to his homeland.