1. Did you ask the house to draw its plan or did it build without asking?
It endured time gracefully as if it was never worn down.

2. The passing years left their marks clearly on my weathered body
That carried its structure and endured its burdens.

3. If it could have wept when I wept for its dilapidation,
It would have cried for me with tears of compassion.

4. I knew its wide courtyard to be familiar
In days when it welcomed me like a polished sword.

5. The impudence of youth does not now shame me
When my passion calls and I do not repent my audacity.

6. And when I desire, I walk proudly without inhibition
So I take the wandering gazelle by surprise.

7. The misery of time continues and does not cease
To change its ways, erasing the beauty of the past.

8. Yet I face it boldly, a valiant horseman,
The son of kings, hunting, not one to withdraw.

9. They raised my reputation, glory above glory,
Until I rose to the highest, most isolated peak.

10. Where the reach of every rival falls short of me
And the onlooker stands in awe and wonder.

11. You are higher than me, O son of a miller,
While my house is in the lowest ravine.

12. O son of a wanton killer, your witness is accepted
Like the witness of the revealed scripture.

13. She who gave birth to you reports that she conceived you
From the sperm of countless stallions.

14. A she-camel, if she butted with her vulva,
Would make two dreamy camel bulls collide and scatter.

15. A she-camel, if she vocally announced her heat to the deaf rock face of As-Safa,
Her call would crack the sturdy camel litters.

16. A she-camel, if she wetted a man’s body with the drippings of her hide,
One not safe from the burning thirst, with her morning dew,

17. A green-colored she-camel, if she blew her spittle,
Even a snake impregnated by it would not coil in lifelessness.

18. Hot enough to contain the desire of a thousand lustful poets
Whose passion for her does not cool.

19. Do not be angry with God, for it is only
The work of her wanton vulva against the stallions.

20. If He gave you time according to your hopes for survival,
You would be spared, but her disease did not grant you time.

21. And she saw you an easy target for perdition and misfortune,
More so than being trampled by the feet of a heavily loaded traveling camel train.

22. So curb the blame of your two eyes against her head,
Not God or the Prophet—and be just in your rule.

23. They did not deserve your disbelief in their crime,
So leave aside your grudges and be equitable in your judgement.

24. Give your mother a drink of Hell’s pus,
Not from the clear sparkling heavenly wine.

25. She left this world without yearning for
Any pleasure of drink or food she tasted,

26. Except copulating with slaves—she did not neglect it
Or cease to think of it and its excitements.

27. Death overtook her while her mind
Was on the penises, as if they preoccupied her.

28. She left you as her successor but did not produce
Anyone to replace her, so exert your powers to the utmost!

29. You were endowed with the traits of the one whose fame
Spread for her generous gifts.

30. O people of Damascus, rejoice!
For the daughter of your poet brings you auspicious news.

31. She left you a mother who took care of you all
And her pregnancy reached full term.

32. Shall the invitation of a lowly despised one
Be refused, one who spurns your call from on high?

33. Take her to yourself, to drive away the overpowering fate
From her people, and narrow the breadth of the abode.

34. Make the brackish water seem to her
Like it was sweetened for you by steeping lote leaves.

35. I have apportioned poetry about you sparingly,
Out of reverence and piety, holding myself back.

36. But wild poetry forces insisted upon composing poems
Whose tide flooded forth like a raging torrent.