1. No eyelids shedding tears in knots,
No beauty of a mouth that shines like hail,

2. No borrowed garment from a waving branch,
Of one bending and swaying.

3. I'm not one who wastes his tears,
Between ruins, yearnings, and tent pegs.

4. Besides falling misfortune, life falls
Wearing a dress of blissful living.

5. Nor did rain water a lofty house,
Haughty, it leaks and relies on props.

6. Better than standing at an empty ruin,
Remembering friends now departed.

7. A cup of wine the vintner offered,
Mother of nights and grand dame of eternity.

8. We drink it aflame without fire,
And enjoy it a spirit without body.

9. Has anyone attained a joy like ours,
In the monastery of Murreh, Sunday eve?

10. Oh goodness of my day through it and yesterday,
And beauty of my tomorrow and the day after.

11. Gardens atop a clamorous brook,
And a grove beneath a warbling bird.

12. A monk buys freely and in virtue,
Chastely and sagely therein.

13. To water what Khareeth owns, and what
He specially gained in fine horses.

14. I said to him, and his son circled them:
"Through you our land prospers."

15. Through your son’s beauty of form,
You became the gazelle’s not the lion’s father."

16. May you be blessed, o father,
And blessed Khareeth, Christ’s servant, through your son.

17. Serve it to me pure, and if she spills
My blood, I have no claim of wergild from you,

18. Drinking from one firmly grasping the pole
Of the tent, fair, and graceful of neck.

19. Raising his voice in song, is there anyone
To cheer save the talented singing girl?

20. An era of leisure passed, and it was
The dearest of those I miss.