1. O Zarwa, you have inherited
Immunity from any disease

2. I did not know her speech
Heals hearts better than words

3. Alas longing for
Those homes and tents

4. My knowledge of them
Was but a dream’s illusion

5. A fair Yemeni woman restrained by shyness
From uttering a word

6. With cool, refreshing cheeks
That restore the wine-flushed complexion

7. Or the taste of strewn musk
Sealed tightly in its pod

8. If the dead tasted it
None would rise from beneath the tombstones

9. And a languid, feeble love song
Like my weak body in sickness

10. Rian burdened, preferring
To sit rather than stand

11. Complaining of her waist’s pain
Like her passionate lovers’ torment in love

12. How many nights I have stayed awake
Sipping that sweetness from the veil

13. Until she saw the hoary hair
Showing, like my temples, white

14. She said: Still not sated
After so long in dreams?

15. As if her falling tears blended
With the imam’s dew

16. The just sultan
Pride of the glorious, son of the glorious, son of the glorious

17. People of superiority, merit
And magnificent gifts

18. And brother of feasts and bounties
And magnificent manliness

19. His noble, generous ancestors
The generous people, sons of the generous

20. Their palms overflow with munificence
Like the downpour of clouds

21. Pillars of patience in battle
And oceans of generosity at meals

22. They outranked the noble clan
Like fresh dates outrank dried dates

23. They knew authority and rule
And bounty before weaning

24. Their natures inclined to charity
To reform the people

25. O foremost son of the eminent
Foremost in leadership and turban

26. You are the supported, ever we pray
For the eternity of your reign

27. Time wandered in your acclaimed
Justice, in Egypt and Syria

28. All who confess are obliged
To you, outstripping Shem and Ham So the lofty were lowered

29. For your sake, stern warrior,
You routed the army of unbelief and idolatry

30. With the intrepid troops
You exposed each disowned

31. Among them without preamble
You stripped their plots

32. As sunlight strips away darkness
The structure of their regime dissolved

33. Beforehand in terrible death
They aspired to fight you

34. Then recklessly advanced leaderless
Pride deluded them, so you inflicted

35. Utter defeat
O rain of the people of earth

36. A day of dew and rain in the throngs
You were gladdened by the Feast

37. For which yearning to greet you in peace
And may each Festival of Fast-Breaking be joyous

38. For you are its feast every year