1. He is the separation, no greetings or response
No glance to fulfill the right of passion

2. The steamer has set sail with the separation between them
They departed without beauty or pulling of ropes

3. It sailed with them like the sailing of clouds
As if it had the intention to distance all lovers

4. So every eye is an eye of crying
And every cheek has tears upon it

5. So Sa'd, tell me news of those who left
You are knowledgeable of stories, O Sa'd

6. Perhaps the talk of longing may extinguish an ember
Of passion or may fulfill the loss of the absent one

7. It is a fire in the entrails, but for its fall
Upon my liver, that which cools it is most beloved

8. By the passions! They are dear to me
Nothing has troubled me after residing in them

9. If it contained what an onlooker's eye sees
It spent the night without anything but sorrow and visitors

10. Emptied of friends, except for a group
Whose hopes led them to know it

11. An ambergris breeze called them
And by the beautiful breeze, roses are known

12. We stopped and greeted with silent tongues
Except they are tongues that speak

13. From the blinking of an eye and the exhale of a sigh
That has embers between dignity that has no fire

14. So O heart, be patient if the bier pained you
For every separation or meeting has an extent

15. Passion may divide the closest two
And enmity may join the furthest two

16. The nights flow according to their judgment
Once near, another time far

17. I would not have been submissive to she who
Does wrong, but the young man is enslaved to passion

18. So my determination does not soften to a critic
And my heart is a sword that has no notched blade

19. Refusal, as the potter willed, and bravery
That the meek lion lowers to

20. We are people with no disgrace
Except that our valley judges with passion, we help

21. We soften even if we are firm with passion
We rage in the neighing of a stallion and become severe

22. It is enough that you know our Arab nature
It is wine, if turpentine does not come without it

23. I have a thirst that water does not quench
And in the soul is a matter that effort cannot attain

24. I love, and the love of a man does not benefit him
If he has intellect, when he has no seriousness

25. I have no poverty of worldly things, but
Seeking the heights is glory, even if I have glory

26. How many gifts I have from God
That the envious malignant person bites his hand over

27. I am the man whom wealth does not make arrogant
Nor does hardship curve his morals

28. My trait is loving loyalty innately
What good is a heart that has no lasting pact

29. But brothers in Egypt and companions
Who forgot us, no promise or oath from them

30. I yearn for them in longing, though between us
Are aspirations that weary the closest of relatives

31. So O dwellers of Fustat, what is with our letters
Lying with you a month without response?

32. Is it true that we remember your pact
While you have no kindness towards us?

33. So no harm, God will bring about a return
That is easy after communication is cut off

34. May God reward well whoever rewards me with its like
In misery, the prime of life flows with it

35. I spend the night remembering you in it, tossing and turning
As if I am well or the roses turned towards it

36. So do not think me heedless of your affection
Going slowly, in my mind there is no uncaring stone

37. It is love, not turned away by distance, and perhaps
It softly sighs from the touch of separation

38. An estrangement came between you and me and frowned
At my face, its nature is wretchedness

39. I look around, I do not see anything but a nation
Of blond heads in the Balkans, missed by number

40. Vagrants on the ridge of mountains for a raid
The light of dawn chases it when it appears

41. When we walk, evil proclaims its name
And the warrior shouts death and the army draws swords

42. So you see between the two crowds a battlefield
In which the brave curly-haired man speaks to himself

43. On the ground, from it, streams of blood
And above, from its oozing, stars spill

44. When they engage, or the march retreats, I see them
As successive seas between ebb and flow

45. We make them drink the drought of thirst
The defiance of quenching and the teasing of the vineyard

46. So they are between a dead body laying still, a fugitive
Wandering, a captive pulled by armor

47. We go to council when dusk falls
And we attack them with deaths when we attack

48. And drizzling like the darkness of the sea I stirred up its clouds
With no refuge but blades and coats of mail

49. I endured it while death sometimes turned red
And sometimes melted into the darkness so it blackened

50. I was none but the lion aroused by the trail
And none but the sword separated from its sheath

51. Roaring, and for the heroes a whisper from weakness
Galloping, while the heart of the spear in his chest runs

52. No mind except that my spear is its conscience
No courage except that my sword has its knot

53. Not all who strive attain their soul's request
Nor does guidance accompany every seeker

54. If the heart does not support you in every position
Then the sword is but a carried instrument

55. If the outcome of everything, even if pure
Is annihilation, then the hated annihilation is eternity

56. And immortalizing one's mention after death
Is life for him, no death reaches it afterward

57. So why does man fear the evil of his day
While in his tomorrow is what its occurrence is inevitable?

58. To spite me, let the envious boil in rage, for I
Am sulphur to their nostrils and fire to their livers, kindled

59. I am the praised speaker without any insult
And of the merit of nobility, enmity and opposition

60. So a man may envy his own son, and he himself
While an armlet may constrict the arm that carries it

61. I still remain envied for glory and greatness
And no man envied has a peer