1. Do you see me listening to the cooing of the doves
Whose lament is like your charming lamentation?

2. God is forbearing on an ominous day of darkness
When it wails among the frightened gazelles.

3. A company gathered then scattered its group
A group of intimates though not bound together.

4. I stood at the ruins but did not find
A threshold with traces of flowing tears.

5. I asked them until I was drawn in, but they did not
Respond to the call of a lingering visitor.

6. A sanctuary in which I attained love from its branch
And drew amusement like a bucket from a well.

7. So I will shed tears if they are not shed
And I will know passion if it is not known.

8. I was passionate in my youth and prime
And to them if you were not passionate.

9. You were amazed at the warbling of the lute player. But
His warbling would amaze if it were not modulated.

10. Why didn’t you weep when you saw his weeping,
And why didn’t you mourn when you heard the grieving of the grieving one?

11. I swear by the nobility which the Udad attested for him
Inheriting from Joseph, son of Joseph.

12. And by the awesomeness of the promise of victory, he
Repelled the enemy with his rumbling thunder.

13. The Romans will become in the morning an army sheathing
Its swords for the dawn in its quilted armor,

14. The horizon will be darkened by it if it does not disband
And the sun will be eclipsed by it if it does not veil itself.

15. If Layla the fawn-like saw
Its horsemen, she would not reproach the family of him who finds fault.

16. Horses like spears and youths
Like swords when summoned for an excursion.

17. Blossoms - when the flames of youth kindled them
They turned to the first of sand dunes bending.

18. The lion obeyed guides them as if he were
Among the assembling throng harmonious.

19. Amr Al-Qina in battle gear or Amer
In Tai or Hajib in Khindif.

20. Like a lion except that this one attacks
With Indian sword but that with claws.

21. Steadfast in purpose, taciturn in mind amidst
The terrors of that barefaced incident.

22. Drawing on support from a store of his opinion
He resolves matters though their sea was not drained.

23. Unless he is advanced in years, he is then
Advanced in experience in the tumult of crises.

24. The places of his opinion appear as if they are
The deceptions of bygones from a towering cliff.

25. When he consults a thought of his mind
He hits upon mysteries though the veil is not unveiled.

26. And when the speech of men in sermons mounted,
He summarized the case in three letters.

27. In every road his steeds raced,
Swooping down with the swoop of eagles in a thicket.

28. They passed through the terebinth trees and churned
Upon a back of willow in a hollow valley.

29. They took breakfast from Tarsus - very far
For hopes on a remote horizon bringing anxiety.

30. They left Mawah though it is a dwelling place for echo
escorted by the echo of rustling winds.

31. Upon Qudhaidhiyah they descended with a banner
Fulfilling the coming of two swooping eagles.

32. Al-Khasi was recompensed and he risked himself seeking
Revenge for Al-Khasi with the galloping pace of a grandsire.

33. The terrors of battle confused him, and if he
Were an eye, because of his terrible fright it would not blink.

34. O Yusuf ibn Muhammad! How excellent is not
Reconciling the Romans by the sharpened sword!

35. They would cement a bond if you cut off their noses -
Unlike cutting off heads unlike cutting off noses.

36. The mistress of their kingdom proposed peace to you
If an attainment were sought from a helper.

37. As if I see you came with her throne
While the sword is swifter to grant than a chieftain.

38. You brought down the Bible then brought down its people
Humiliated - I see them mighty people of the Scripture.

39. You were angry with it by lightning bolts yet
You would have pleased it if it were uncorrupted.

40. A conquest you achieved unprecedented in the
Birth of the tenth king's reign as successor.

41. The day you erased from Aswadan the blackness of what
The Prophet did to Ka'b ibn Al-Ashraf.

42. He will reward you for your adequacy
Which was the safety of the religion after fear.

43. You affirmed your pledge to him and did not incline
To the disputing of the fool or words of the agitator.

44. You were supported by fortune which did not reverse
And aided by group which did not weaken.

45. Generosity the tribes invited you to extravagantly -
No extravagance in bestowing gifts upon the extravagant.

46. A grandfather like Abu Saeed's grandfather, he
Abandoned loftiness as if he did not ascend.

47. His character matched him and it is destruction
For the transgressor and it is dew for the virtuous.

48. So when you went to an extreme and he went
To another, your manner meets in the fair one.