1. O Rim, how much I approach while you slumber,
And sleep through my night while you do not keep vigil.

2. You missed the tryst of reproach, and rarely
Have I made a pledge to reproach that endures.

3. So renew the covenant you invalidated,
For it has returned, after praise, despised.

4. Arise, not blamed for rising, for we
Will establish revelry’s market when you stand.

5. This is the dawn, so make the pitcher laugh
About a sun I am adorned by its stars around me.

6. She turned it, and the dawn in the darkness’s throat
Is like an army the Romans invaded while black.

7. And the star on the horizon’s edge is as though
It is a cup with threaded pearls upon it.

8. And the eagle in the sky’s liver is as though
It is an eagle that sometimes soars and sometimes hovers.

9. The horizon is white, and the crescent is as though
It is the anklet of a well-formed, delicate female.

10. And the air is fragrant, as though it comes
With the scent of musk, from it a soft breeze.

11. Roaming to tease, it is thought to be unjust,
But when it draws near, it is as though wronged.

12. Its sailor song is complete, and it stood straight
In wandering ― beauty in it is orphaned.

13. So I drank it from its rim, and its cup
In its palm, and its drink is sealed.

14. Comfortable, as though its breeze was generated
From its diffusion, and its mix is gentle.

15. Two likenesses: worries recede when they
Are present, and sinning becomes good through them.

16. It came with its delicacy, and he came with its color
In his cheek, so the forbearing one inclined toward him.

17. And he quenched thirst with it, and fulfilled a fulfilling,
And the darknesses complained about him to me.

18. And he played softly for us, so he consoled sorrow with something light―
Its complex rhythm and its metered one.

19. The strings converse in its melodies―
Effeminate, and in its words a gentle murmuring.

20. Lying down, stretching his hands, reclining
Like a child, except that he is weaned.

21. Speaking a foreign language, his speech is not
Understood until heaviness from it is seen in the chest.

22. He does not understand intimate talk if you address him,
Yet his conversation is considered well understood.

23. So it is as though an earring in a bottle is swimming
In the water, sinking at times and floating at others.

24. I pour its drink upon its statue, so it is as though
It is a friend and cup-companion to me.

25. In a sitting, time secluded its good fortunes
From us, so the shadow of life in it remains.

26. If Abu Ishaq Ibrahim had not saddened its purity
By being absent from me.

27. O Badr of Hashim, from whom
Preference and priority over them became.

28. O garden of descendants and etiquette in which
There are collected wholesomeness and sciences.

29. Wait, Abu Ishaq. You are outstanding―
A model, and the choice of the noble branches.

30. And the humility of the great in their morals
Is a nobility, just as arrogance is blame.

31. The full moon is mixed with fragrance, and its virtue
In its goodness is agreed upon and known.

32. When my aspirations set out to you, I repelled them
With anxiety, and lofty aspirations are worries.

33. And propriety refuses to cut ties with the proper,
And glory is not content with them, and the insignificant.

34. By my father and mother, you are from one wandering—
Whom praising and venerating did not straighten.

35. If a beloved turned away from a lover
With the turning away from me, he would wander.

36. You multiplied my enviers, so when you shunned me,
You left me as though I am stricken with illness.

37. And you deprived me of the intimacy of reproach, and indeed
Only the fortunate, not the deprived, attains it.

38. Be safe―you have been shaded with a protected blessing
That remains, while the days glance askance at you.

39. And know that you have not remained upon that
Disobedience against me you incurred, grim.

40. But I will visit if you oppose me,
And I will always visit you in good and in bad.