1. Where the sand dunes turned as the caravans marched on,
Your beauty enthralled Yabreen and captivated Na'man.

2. They sway and croon, overcome with joy,
The acacias and palm trees have become one.

3. So look upon their rosy cheeks,
Where fruits of affection glow like pomegranates.

4. Let not the sweetness of their lips deceive you,
For within are pearls and coral.

5. You asked them to turn as they departed,
Yet you doubted they were but graceful gazelles.

6. And you said to yourself, their hearts conceal mysteries,
How could you miss that tears are the key?

7. Eyes convey messages and books of excuses,
For the heart has faith in beauty.

8. The specter does not claim the night destroys it,
Though the fires of longing have consumed it.

9. Rather, it is in its nature,
That it does not shut its eyes though wide awake.

10. The chaste one said: turn away from them. I said: I advise you
No heart encounters them except filled up.

11. If you borrowed a heart and took its help,
It could not give me solace from love.

12. Take them and fetch more from your eyes again,
They are cups, though it's said they are eyelids.

13. Intoxicated, no excuse left for the sober,
While you are at peace, serene, and with basil.

14. My soul is yours, from the branch of his beauty,
If mentioned, the forgetful turns attentive.

15. You bent it with your lily-white hand willingly,
Does the branch bend except while still wet?

16. If my heart settles or stirs, kiss his cheek,
For I have realized the cheek is the garden.

17. May the prayer caller's call give hope
To whom hopes for his miracle like no rain hoped before.

18. You blamed the crooked spear that pierced my liver,
Amongst them, the crooked spear of Mirnan.

19. Bay is the bay, and the studs are its branches,
So say not you wanted steeds with docked tails.

20. They are idols, and love the sword of son of Yazan,
The wine-skin is their prayer niche, the rod their sheath.

21. O you, whose heart has no second to deviate with
From your belief in them, they are idols.

22. What misguidance! The light of faith burns bright,
The blind can almost see it.

23. A star is the dawn, but it is a lion,
Like rain in the dream of a towering mountain, a man.

24. Sweet leniency, bitter valor, joined,
Separated, it is honey, and it is wasp.

25. If embraces were limited to only them one day,
The regretful would no more be called regretful.

26. I traveled to gain my fortune, not as a foreigner,
So wings and homelands gathered for me.

27. Seek no reconciliation from its treasures for money,
With but a phrase of poetry, Ghassan ransoms it.

28. If slaves came to him, the best of slaves,
The bounties of Nu'man would not destroy him.

29. If he clothed a living enemy in his mirth,
Hostility between them would not last forever.

30. If he carried from it only a skin of wine,
He would not drag the tail of eloquence abased.

31. If the full moon contained a part of his beauty,
No deficiency would mar the perfection of the moon.

32. God adorned the steeds of time with it, so say not,
A mixed breed of Layth and 'Uqab.

33. From a people, whenever war flares up,
Say: black flags, or lances brandished.

34. Those who milked the camels did not begrudge us their milk,
Their udders overflowed and their milk flown.

35. Those who fed the white bowls made them shine,
Eyes and lids recoil from them.

36. And who can compare to Baliyy in dew and grass,
If counted among the tribe, a feeder and fed one.

37. Tell of Zuhair, and count from his stations,
You'd say we witnessed them, and the reins.

38. He is the one who shook the two sons of Wael,
And waved therein, since the day of Tuhulan, the wave of chaos.

39. His status among the clan of Abraha
Was unmatched by any other.

40. Did Yemen contain ought but the hunt of Yaman
With that, Islam and faith came.

41. They intended, by the skull-smashing, in their Tameem,
After eras, they neither intended nor died,

42. The departing white turbans tower over their turbans,
As though they and the crowns are crowns.

43. Branches, I said. Abraham propagated them,
And branches have proof over roots.

44. Be not fooled, the fire of Abraham does not burn,
His spirit with generosity is a deluge.

45. How much glory the son of Shadi has through his praise,
Wherever success and benevolence make him prosperous.

46. You would say about him: everyone else is but tongues,
And if you wish: everyone else is but ears.