1. My friend, though this be their abode
And the boughs of al-Nawa beyond it yearn

2. Whenever I scent a flash of lightning from its ruins
I see the cloud's tears copiously shed

3. It sways with a heart aloof from all others
And its passion is diffident for love's sake

4. So think not I've forgotten the hearts in al-Nawa
Bound to me still by their troth to me

5. For their troth was that they did incline
Longingly to me, though now they turn aside

6. To a land where the zephyrs of morning
Are gentle, and its water is sweet and fresh

7. It pastured Aleppo - its Lord endowed it with beauties
That redouble its fame in the world and ennoble

8. It united within itself all most lovely
So Moses in it is a beloved, Joseph a paramour

9. Had Moses' folk camped in its lands, then wandered
Lost, ignorant in their misguidance, they'd not have strayed

10. Had they drunk of its water and wine
They'd not have broken faith with God one day

11. Had they borne its soil in their saddlebags
No guide would stray that it guided aright

12. Had its morning zephyrs provisioned them
No seeker who yearns toward it would age and grow cold

13. Had Joseph dwelt in its glory and favor
He'd not have turned from it - for he was righteous Joseph

14. Its paradise is the paradise - what city
Nobler than paradise in worth and rank?

15. Lands bow to it, for it is their beauty
And what beauty does not compel and inspire song?

16. So O Egypt, do not weep for mere disgrace
Let the envious, sorrowing foe be clad in vile rags

17. Nay, chant unto me, adorned with embellishment
For any praise but hers is merely affectation

18. Whoso praises her praises all mankind
For through praising her they are ennobled themselves

19. The narrators have conveyed her meanings: a breeze
And water, then a curtain and brocade

20. You see her like the conjunctive 'waw' next to her guest
So say no more of a tenderness robed in gentleness

21. Then thank her likeness, and complain of her distance
As though, while she calls, I am one who refuses

22. And my heart at that place bids farewell
When it leans, to meet and take leave with reserve

23. Oh, how excellent if at al-Salibah I gain
A stance, shedding purer tears or kinder gaze

24. There I knew a pact I'd forgotten
And remind me of my pact which I knew

25. I stopped though I've no right to stop in her land
Far be it from me to stop at her like!

26. So do not doubt a trace whose mark is sublime
Nor weep for a friend whose name is most sublime

27. Rather bend your plaint to me, for I
To her conjunctive 'waw' am more right and familiar

28. I and my brother are one in word, meaning and relation
But he is gentler and kinder than I

29. A brother I've sworn by God of the stock of the splendid
Well-bred Majid, though he came more well-bred

30. As though I and he are Suhayl and Suhā
To the end of time containing us both, land of stance

31. Fate refused us to come nigh though one said
Patience has goals and fate its own means

32. So I was to him as the two Furqad stars, brotherly
Then I returned while Jacob mourns and Joseph

33. As though I were but a letter of his name
That rests awhile then is erased in writing

34. He turned from me, enamored of the East
While I turned from him, a stranger and strained

35. God tended days that passed with words between us
Sweeter and kinder than the zephyrs of dusk

36. A youth I knew possessed surpassing merit
But he has exceeded what I knew him possess

37. He has precedence in the art of speech naturally
But then that art returned sophisticated

38. He is jealous like Mikhail - his sword
To guard what's God's, and God is most sublime

39. He draws with his favor a blade of mercy
Against the abject poor, and the blade is keen

40. He wishes to walk upon his head willingly
Toward righteousness, piety, no objections made

41. When you rise to lofty deeds, his deeds
Put them off in shame as they exalt themselves

42. So do not blame his excess in giving
For that expenditure and good are ordained by God

43. The soul of that youth, if it perseveres in the good of its Lord
Dies yet lives, as it takes on the good

44. When a merit escapes him, he reproaches his efforts
For neglecting it, for he is the meritorious, self-critical one

45. He never ceases devoutly to God the Sublime
Reciting the words of God as tears flow

46. Tears of humility, not of loss
So thrive, O ripe, verdant fruit, when picked!

47. Endless merits - were you to count their qualities
Things would elude you, beyond reckoning and describing

48. He tasks me not to voice his righteousness
And yet, the meaning has taken upon itself that task

49. By every dear one generous upon his Lord's path
Other than honor and the generous expect no reward

50. And he will see on the day his Lord judges him
Ample, faithful reward, for faithfulness is folded up

51. For that his abode is empty of progeny
That he might find it again, and be of greater recompense

52. So no merit to a son who came obedient
Yours is the good - merit lies in the soul, it's known

53. How many a child fulfilled a parent's foe
Praying against him, hellfire flaming

54. How many a fruit whose branch overnight
Became firewood, and without it would not have burned

55. How much wine that corrupted its drinker's reason
Becoming the same, though it was pure white

56. So beware the cunning of man's evil child
Your own son who differs from you, most hostile

57. I see a man's name rise then his reward
Righteousness, merit, piety and self-denial

58. May your Master reward you best of rewards
And never cease to aid you in your striving

59. And house you in the most lofty, inherited
And say no more of an inheritance conforming for you

60. I beg the intercession of the Maid - the like of her
An intercessor - and through intercession you are aided

61. No honor but in her it is perfected
No perfect one but in her exalted

62. No filth but in her it is cleansed
No pure one but in her refined

63. No ignorant one but in her wise
No reasonable one but in her gentled

64. The heart sincere has her in its possession
For only a heart pure of others captivates you

65. A heart you disdain, if you see others in it
For a heart is right to disdain those besides her

66. God saw a beauty He created sublime
But Mary among them more beautiful, most sublime

67. For that did she conceive one like her
No surprise that like takes to like

68. Stop, provision her a thousand thousand greetings
And do not deny her beneficence, for she is just