1. Remind the hearing of the mention of al-Ban and al-Alam
And excuse the gushing of my tears if they flow in blood

2. Joys for youth that grew stronger and did not cease
To be joys for sorrow and downcast eyes

3. They were homes for us until when they grew strong from us
They became homes for the wind and ruin

4. After them I did not take a house to stay in
Except I remembered my days in Salami

5. And how can I forget homelands in which I grew up
In the plantation of glory between family and in-laws

6. O dwellings that when parting from them
Nothing remained but drawings like handwriting of pens

7. Where are those whose sights
Used to shepherd beauties from head to foot

8. I bid goodbye to half my life the day they parted
And the hand of sorrow and old age shook my hand

9. So O brother of fairness, do not be quick to blame
For love is counted from the shares

10. You have been excessive in the blame until if you obtained it
On the precincts of truth, you would not be safe from suspicions

11. So have mercy on the youth of a gallant lad
Whose softness the hands of agony made into flesh and fragments

12. By God, the betrayal of sweethearts is not of my manners
Nor is fickleness in character one of my traits

13. So how can I deny a love that I have taken
Covenants of loyalty upon, of solemn oath

14. If the lad does not have a mind by which he protects
The bonds of affection, the sanctity of the forbidden would be wasted

15. And where is he whose noble traits
Make the free yield, while betrayal among people is an incurable disease

16. So rid your hands of this world for you will no longer see
A loyal friend or trusted ally or an unbreached covenant

17. Alas, there remains no trusted brother in this world
Who would preserve affection or extend a hand of peace

18. So let no smiling face deceive you
For fire lies dormant in the butting end of a snake

19. People have changed from what I used to hear
And betrayal has taken grip among the nobles and protectors

20. And the most unjust of those you meet
Remains more transgressive upon people than a wolf amongst sheep

21. Every uglier worn from his lairs so conceited
Empty of merit, filled with greed

22. Black at heart, deceitful by nature
Bent on violating sanctities, misleading in the dark

23. They do not do justice in rights nor
Fulfill pacts except in fear of vengeance

24. Their yellow faces from hatred you would think them
Healthy, armored by disease

25. So no integrity in word or deed
Nor honesty in pact or oath

26. I have tasted the fruits of their trees that if you marked them
On the cheek of a gazelle, she would not shine a standard

27. I did not know if some prodigy was born in this earth
Or if this was the nature of life since ancient times

28. Glory cannot be attained except by one who when
Ambition grips him, he does not sit back out of spite

29. If the efforts did not show the merit
Of men, people would be equal despite their price

30. So what puzzling thing did not my insight uncover
And what conspicuous affair did not my steps ascend

31. And how could my initiative not outpace the latecomers
When the Samhari pen fears the deceit of my pen

32. For every age has men who are remembered through it
But merit lies in the self, not in ancientness