1. Your phantom did not cure my pain when it visited,
Rather, its arrival increased my suffering and sorrow.

2. It came to me while the night was still dark,
Like the moon rising amidst the gloom without illuminating it.

3. It kept falsely claiming it came to visit me
Until it took away my patience and forbearance from me.

4. I reproached it, so it made me drink a cup of sorrow,
That made the reveler wipe his palms in regret.

5. Until when the night grew old and its stars began to fade,
And its steps grew slow due to old age,

6. I got up stumbling as passions roused me,
But I could not walk forward due to my drunkenness.

7. I bid farewell to the one whom if I passed by
And greeted, would return the greeting wide awake.

8. He trembled like a branch called upon, and my tears
Fell around him, violets and anemones.

9. I went on worshipping an idol that commanded
My heart’s devotion to the religion of passion.

10. Whenever I sought concealment, worries
Followed with gray hair, and I sought concealment again.

11. An aspirations that faded when it disappeared
Returned to ashes, though it had been an ember.

12. During my youth I suffered, so I did not see
Except sorrows that had been wishes.

13. Drink until the raven says because of wine’s traces,
“We have become habits though we were graceful birds.”

14. You have swallowed every mouthful
Of worries except the delicious morsel.

15. Among a group whose swords, whenever unsheathed
By the guarding hand in the darkness of night, were lethal.

16. I gave them nothing for entertainment but the daughter of generosity,
As we recalled generosity over our entertainment.

17. Whenever it was said: “The star of the faith has shone,”
And its lights erased the darkness and gloom,

18. We would say: “Generosity has returned to the bloom of youth through him,
As old age left him though he had grown old.”

19. A king whose authority made the world forbidden,
Yet he allowed it, though it had been forbidden like a sanctuary.

20. He is the rain cloud that never settled on a land
Except it poured blood from it or torrents.

21. He is the sword that battlefields said:
“The best of two swords in time of distress is the decisive one.”

22. Obeyed by mighty and lowly, none disobeyed him
Except the lofty and protected.

23. The prudent one restrained his nation during peace
And with his steeds during trials.

24. The owner of winds that if they raged, they would uproot
The pegs of Al-Najd, and then even straw mats would be useless.

25. As if fate is an effigy we deflate,
And he has placed his sword on it like an idol.

26. If the family of Masal said: “From it we have a supporter,”
The conqueror said: “From Murr, and that is unquestionable.”

27. He dictated to the Arabs through his planning ways
That made the non-Arabs tremble over their towers.

28. Now the forefathers have become united
With the community brought together and the people reconciled.

29. His view made the region submit to him,
If he wished, his sword and pen would have sufficed.

30. It is enough for the lake that Allah made it
A sea, foaming with the swelling waves through him.

31. How many who sank in it crossed it safely
Until its captor poured his bucket over it.

32. He carries on his horses lions from its horsemen
And on its spears he carries rocks from its lions.

33. His sword in his grip has a fire upon a flag -
If you ever heard of fire and flag then you know.

34. It unsheathes the dull blade and protects the confused,
Mobilizing the efforts to dispel the confusion.

35. The land - whenever the passing breeze traveled through it -
Flourished, almost growing plants from the breeze.

36. So praise be to Allah, the sword sealed its cracks,
And smoothly returned to the scabbard unharmed.

37. Through you, a cheek smiles which you have made
Smile through beauty and kindness.

38. The day flows on its fangs like a moustache
And the night dyes its lips from it red.

39. Until we say - though before we were ignorant -
“Glory to You! Your justice has made passions seem vile.”