1. I see your passion for me is intense,
And my patience and sleep in your love are troubled.

2. Time has passed without any messenger coming to me
With good tidings, nor has any letter turned to me.

3. Alone, estranged among friends in a foreign land,
Indeed, whoever seeks loyalty is alone.

4. Is there a return for an emigrant whom the days of parting have cast off
Or a comeback for those who are gone?

5. Does time that has passed and a life that has been diminished
Regain its freshness after it is gone?

6. I comfort myself with the past, yet
The arrival of something new is more delightful.

7. And my recollection of days is just
To recognize youth and covenants.

8. Not lost is a man embraced by soil,
Rather lost is one distanced by separation.

9. O day that I was not awake for
Except being told it is a feast.

10. Will you foolishly ask us to wear new clothes
When our garments, as you know, are ragged?

11. The luck of some is a cup and a bottle,
And the fortune of men is boasting and singing.

12. To delight one who slept well-off and content,
A comrade of pleasures with no grudges.

13. You see his family rejoicing at his nearness.
They are around him, never leaving as witnesses.

14. If he travels away from them, he travels honored,
And if he returns to them, he returns happy.

15. He addresses each with what suits them,
Sometimes beginning gratitude, other times repeating it.

16. But for a stranger whose stay is fleeting,
His group was torn apart by days and he became confused.

17. A land where, unlike hell, there is ice and snow,
Bulgars, Romans, and Tatars gathered and competed,

18. When they chatter, you hear their clamor
Almost making the earth quake.

19. Ugly are their faces and looks as if they are
Soldiers for other than my father's people.

20. Vagrants, not of a known tribe,
So no fathers or ancestors are known for them.

21. They have images, not faces, upon which
Eyes and cheeks are assigned.

22. They clamor around me like calves, some
Babble incoherently when they try to speak.

23. I look around but see no gentleman among them
To chat with me where I chat.

24. So I gain no strangeness from them,
Nor am I, for as long as I stayed, beneficial among them.

25. Who can bring me days that passed before these
In Egypt where my life, if continued, would be pleasant?

26. Perhaps Allah will fulfill a reunion after estrangement
And a father and son will rejoice in the meeting.