1. My innovation is as its name implies an innovation
No pretense in that, and no deception

2. Circumstance assembles for her gathering
Beauty and benevolence in her land

3. O you who ask about her fortune
To people a share, to her nine shares

4. As though she sang to the morning sun
So she dressed it in her splendor and finery

5. Of one whose benevolence God has decreed
How excellent is my Qumariyya’s chanting

6. She has a tempo in her songs
Moderating slowness and speed

7. As though the softness heard in her
Is the softness of a lament that preceded her tear

8. She guides to your heart what it desires
As though she was made privy to its secrets

9. She excels at the start but
More excellent still is her return

10. If she were to sing to a corpse at its bier
Or her lute enlivened one listless

11. She sang without need for a musician
Does dawn require a candle?

12. And a band paid tribute to her wonders
From a gazelle who finished its frolicking

13. So it was a crown that increased the delight
Not a turban covering over a bald head

14. Woe to the son of Ayyub for missing
The pleasurable hearing and artfulness

15. What cares he after attaining
What we have described that raptured his hearing

16. And how wretched is he whose heart
She captured rending it to pieces

17. Misfortune opposed her command
While the seven stars assisted her

18. So too whoever draws near her perimeter
Let the perimeter intercede for him

19. She remained displaying her face to us
In the prime of Friday like a congregation

20. As though the sun on an overcast day
Flashed its glimmer for our eyes

21. I swear had I been able to capture her chanting
And it was a string I would see no pairs

22. I would not care for any kingdom or queen
No matter how the Prophet urged or strove

23. And my heart would be forever her jurisdiction
And my hearing forever her guard

24. And she would leave me, as long as I faced her
On the meadow of immortality grazing

25. Impose on whoever you have favor with
For some of a young man’s imposition raises him

26. And open the door that lies beyond her
It will open to you at your conquest like a fortress

27. That is a spring whose meadow we took joy in
So the free born will not be blamed for negligence

28. Safeguard her gathering actively
For by God it is a pleasure without parallel

29. And relate it to people proudly
For however you wish from its loftiness

30. A noble master who wins glory on the day of trial caused me to hear her
But then he habitually wronged me

31. To follow joy with anguish
He showed me generosity

32. Cloaking me in daring
While my face by him was joyous

33. He covered my face with a slap
Awakening me from the intoxication of his pleasures

34. To an awakening followed by slumber
I am summoned so I hasten but then see a frown

35. Sullen before him is the refusal and refusal
So an intercessor goads him and a patch goads another patch

36. And the soul is in confusion and bewilderment
While my body’s freshness complains of its ribs

37. From a blow followed by a pull
And a pull followed by a blow

38. Pulling me to push with such force
Pushing me to pull with haste

39. Woe! How bitter is the draught from him
And how salty is the draught

40. As though in his actions a bee
That follows a sting with sweetness

41. The best of speech is from a brother whose honesty
O you who refused the reins and let them go

42. Your servant, if you give me my due from clarity
But if you transgress then who can stop you

43. There present yourself whatever private matters confine you
For your circumstances have narrowed their breadth

44. And if you hoped for affection short of striving
What has expanded to you would not narrow

45. But you discern only coolness from him
Away from a suspicion that shook its pillar

46. Neither have his eyes wept from regret
Nor has he complained of agony to the intimately familiar

47. Nor has God seen him beseeching
The origin of consent from you or a branch

48. So why should I beseech my estranged
Not for an ambitious one seeking a bond

49. Nor for a sin have I come deserving
Turn me back if I have come without being called

50. The free man is not provoked by one who provokes
Even if his nose is cleaved

51. In the loyalty of the brethren is my safekeeping
And in hope of God is my satisfaction

52. Whenever have I sought affection from a hater
Or directed my foot to rugged terrain

53. May God not destine for me a stumbling
Or diminish for me a collapse

54. Do you not know whose neighbor in his ruling
I see the deposing of a king

55. My condition with the angels is that I do not see
For myself everyday interaction with him

56. Who does not follow the elite to pelt me with gravel
Nor tranquility with panic

57. Of one whose sword fraternizes with its sheath
But does not fraternize with the drawing of its blade

58. And does not see that when I visit him
I intended the brawl and altercation

59. Leave this one and move on to another
And consent to one whose nature you have angered

60. And shelter fleeing one enraged
Restraining yourself suffices to subdue him

61. God forbid prominence pursues him
Prominence pursued by humility

62. And if I saw despair from his pardon
None would have seen this flattery from me

63. A servant has no obligation to obey
A master who neglected him and did not shepherd him

64. I angered him until his ignorance was excessive
But he did not say in blame what pierces

65. O you hoped for in his time
Be gentle with the tender sprigs with dew

66. Take initiative doing good to ward off its detriments
For the foundation of life is on bastions

67. And sow crops whose harvest you will approve
For all are reapers of what they have sown

68. I had solace in knowing you
Had you not let me taste beginnings

69. But I aspired for its fruits
So grant my hand fruits

70. Does the freeborn begrudge his rightful share
Of one who gently shook his soft trunk?