1. Stand at the dwellings and call, by name, the people who dwell nearby;
How many friends we have in those places whom we befriended long ago.

2. In it, I left a heart of mine, confident
That one who safeguards it is under the protection of Arabs.

3. I entrusted it to one who treats a neighbor as a trusting friend,
For there is no safety for gold in his grasping hands.

4. He who keeps his word disdains treachery;
The truthful one's nature abhors lies.

5. He is the virtuous, pure hearted friend,
The noble prince of lofty lineage.

6. No seeker of his aid was left wanting in ease or distress,
Who called upon the Ever-Giving Lord was not denied.

7. I pledged to him a covenant I keep
In nearness and distance, between war and war.

8. When we are apart, his visage appears to me,
As if, in either state, he was never absent from me.

9. My soul, on wings of passion, flies to blessed Yemen,
Borne on yearning pinions, fluttering, trembling.

10. I recruit the wind to convey greetings to him,
Snatched up by the breezes into the clouds.

11. O how wondrous are the lightning bolts in the land of nomads,
And how wondrous the undulating dunes of the nomads!

12. O how wondrous is every quarter where they make camp,
As though flecked with copses of reeds!

13. And every pasture in which the herds graze, wandering,
As though mounds appeared upon mounds!

14. And every abode in which the onagers gather, accustomed
To mingling with the gazelle between the courtyard’s width and firewood!

15. Coming from the throat of the strongly girded courser at dusk
To the throat of the destrier caparisoned and armed!

16. Their fire is not extinguished except on glowing embers
Which separate the flames from the firewood!

17. You have attained, O Giver, the utmost they attained,
And guided them by the beauty of refinement and courtesy.

18. You inherited the excellence of a renowned father;
Had another fathered you, you would have inherited the excellence of a father!

19. This is a epistle from one who yearns, reminding you
Of a pact between us, from former ages.

20. If the beloved scribe eludes my sight,
Then I find solace in books and manuscripts today.