1. O breeze of the north, deliver thou my message
And convey my greetings and peace

2. And bear the burden of the passion I impart to thee
Of yearning, anguish and love

3. To the youth of Hashim, my noble brother
The generous lord of gifts and favours

4. For fate has decreed my separation from
My companion, though blameless he remains

5. Solitude has set his lands ablaze
With more intense fires than the valley’s basalt

6. And a lover who has suffered separation but gained no respite
However mighty a man against pain he be

7. It has torn me away from him after I had spent
My days reveling in his affection and company

8. It has dragged me far from his thickets where partridges sing
Degraded, amid the barren valley’s cliffs

9. It has steered me off his path, leaving me bereft
Like a lone orphan, though orderly in demeanour

10. It has diverted me from his roses, so render thy judgment by the book
Against one discarded, beyond law, in darkness

11. And joined me to another, though my brother of high morals knows
What esteem is worthy in time of ill health

12. O brother of Hashim son of Abd Manaf
A plea from a brother of honourable men

13. What eye beholds me except as bewildered
Amongst a people who grasp not my words

14. How out of place is my sojourn with them, but far be it from you
Like the vigil of sleepers among the sleeping throng

15. Eyes wander over their forms, mere beasts of burden they remain
Would that I had bartered them, despicable white faces

16. For noble pitch-black men of Ham’s descent
Boors who cannot distinguish midst their hands

17. Between thumb and forefinger, between honour and insult
Scoundrels, emasculate, who see no difference between

18. Grace and humiliation, respect and degradation
Except that the elite of ferocious Hashim

19. Have guarded my honour and controlled their reins
They have indulged me, treating me as one of them

20. Despite our lack of family ties
A people who prefer generosity over wealth

21. And value only what is intangible and sublime
Such are their ways, can you offer any objection

22. Other than the curses of the base and vile?
They are accustomed to the pliant temper of the ignoble

23. And to sacrificing themselves when duty calls
They offer food when famine rages; they refuse

24. When all are sated; they give when asked; they restrain when wealth abounds
They inherited this from their forebears, who recoiled

25. When the cowards quailed and slackened their reins
Perchance sensing dishonour in flight

26. Before the enemy, they spurned their mounts
So faster than their arrows in deceit are they

27. And swifter than the lightning bolts they unleash
Like Abd al-Hamid, when the blood is spilt

28. And feet trample the battleground
A hero who sets ablaze with his blows the cool

29. Eyes until even the pigeons' eyes flare up
He who makes each empty braggart’s neck swell

30. To reveal the cowardice behind the bravado
Since the day he saw decline in control of wealth

31. He has refused it, preferring death and oblivion
Yet no apologies for that abode, nor those folk

32. O brother of excellence, brilliance, munificence
And fame and mighty deeds

33. Do not abandon me to leave and reside amongst
People other than you, unfit for me

34. My spirit clings to you if the abode should turn
Away, as our souls cling to their bodies

35. Blame only the turn of fate
And pardon the failings of the days