1. Is Abraham calling for help from one restored,
For an opinion from you that is praiseworthy?

2. Your paganism was made clear to me yesterday,
As was the lengthy shadowed side.

3. What was luminous between us became dark,
In the moments between the striking of the tent poles.

4. And in your eyes I see a translation
That indicates rancor and hatred.

5. Morals I was accustomed to as being gentle
Have become as if they were iron rods.

6. I incline toward you with a close affection
Yet you distance me to remote lineage.

7. What is my crime that the son of my uncle
Was none other than you, though your character was not my character?

8. If your Iraq is far from my Syria
As your ancestors were far from my ancestors,

9. Still, my intention toward you was not by choice
And God was more worthy of the servants.

10. And it was made in my defiance of a people,
And some making from a remote cause.

11. Are you not ashamed of the praise of Sa'war
In describing you among the beasts and camels?

12. You wish it were a wonder for you about me
In its precise composition in verse.

13. It built for you in poetry a stronghold,
And maintained for you renown in the ode.

14. And you insult me when the cup goes round
With sips that come in succession.

15. Nonsense that makes the gathering hang their heads
Over me as if it were firewood.

16. And detractors, if I exalt a matter,
Bore witness against me though they are my own witnesses.

17. And I have no power to restrain you from me,
Nor do I resort to a sturdy pillar,

18. Other than flames that the free man fears
With a blaze that does not hope to die down.

19. And if I want, while you are fostering
Against me, I would stir a bound revolt.

20. You wronged a brother - if he sought vengeance
Poetry would invade you in armies.

21. The stars of fates have risen together
Bringing misfortune and good fortune.

22. You have bound me against this
While God said "Fulfill your oaths."

23. I repent to you from trusting scarcity
Of a gentle disposition or harmony.

24. And I thank the blessing to you in my knowing
That loyalty today is a habit.

25. I will depart faulting while my faulting is
Without threat or warning.

26. And I will preserve from you what you neglected of me
In spite of the quarreling and envy.

27. I have seen composure in a quick breast
When I discern the consequence of affection.

28. I used to, if a friend saw my intimacy
As business, return to aloofness.

29. Greetings whenever greetings are said
To Sa'd the gentle, that I am happy.

30. A youth who made zeal for high values
And directed his love toward fellowship.

31. And immortalized his glory among the verse
While some poetry I composed for eternity.

32. That is how it shone in my highest hopes
And I did not perceive it a moment of excess.

33. And how could that be when each day
He meets me with some new kindness?