1. The lightning flashes, its kindling afire,
Your night shudders, its darkness eternal.

2. It growls through the belly of clouds,
Its young fluttering like partridges.

3. The unseen is like a black slave,
The dawn's whiteness a shroud.

4. It struck with its blade savagely,
Stabbing midst the mortal pain.

5. Upon your cheek's page, my blood flowed
And from it the blackened heart showed.

6. Or did your glance pierce my liver,
Such that my soul blackened in shame?

7. Why does time afflict me so
While I praise its heights in verse?

8. If a brother lacks the gallantry
To be generous, where can it be found?

9. Does time act unjustly toward mortals
While the dew of Ibn Salama helps them?

10. Truth softens toward someone,
Yet through Ishmael its harshness prevails.

11. Religion struts about vainly
If the righteous man's virtues humble it.

12. If time itself could speak,
It would say you alone humble it.