1. I see among the twisting sands, dwellings,
If only their allure were dwellings.

2. So halt if you are excused, in them,
And pass them by if you refuse them.

3. We met the singing girls in the twisting sands, as though
We met the sociable, flirtatious ones.

4. And the eyes kill the lovers, and I hadn't thought
The pictured veils were deadly.

5. Longing's migrants, if the hand of fate would will it,
Would make abundant those we long for.

6. And the way of love - I have found no way from it,
And the preoccupier of distress - I have found none to preoccupy me from it.

7. And I led my forbearance astray, so I turned
To youth foolishly, though I have traversed the stages of youth.

8. So, to God belong the days of youth and the goodness of what
It did with us, if only they were few.

9. Does our long night with its admirers have for us
A way to the short night in Babel?

10. Peace to the lads in the east! I am bound
Headlong for the west.

11. With the lion and son of the lion I spend the day marauding
The environs, then spend the night fighting.

12. We visit - without longing - Thawrat and her son,
Though Tawfil ibn Makil has barred the way to her.

13. Like the companions of Dhul Qarnayn where they settled
Beyond the setting place of the sun, in those dwellings.

14. And whoever bustles in the palaces of the son of Yusuf
Sees reality in the nearness of loved ones to be false.

15. He falls asleep behind the gauze curtains while his opinion
Rends behind the curtains.

16. When suspicion blackens in it, it is like the planets,
And when news travels in it, it is like pregnant clouds.

17. He hurled the Byzantines with invasions that followed each other
Without cease, reaching the fighter.

18. He invaded them and annihilated them and did not just
Suffice them the tribute until he renewed the invasion to match it.

19. Good for you! Look upon them, so livestock may fatten
Glistening, or milk teem in abundance.

20. For you have raided in their valleys ceaselessly,
Strewing them copiously with fine mist and downpour.

21. And you have given drink to those above the citadels among them,
Until nothing remains but to take the citadels themselves.

22. With an army in which, when it marches, you see the day a tribe,
And when it camps, the night tribes.

23. Directing them while the sword's possessor is on foot,
Wherever the fray harvests resolve, mounted.

24. Their vanguard if he directs the army invading
And their rearguard if he directs the army returning.

25. Nor have the youths praised anyone like Muhammad
Forever, exalter of the lofty deeds and shoulders.

26. Protected from the envious, glory
Crowds over him, whenever counted, fortunate and attaining.

27. Kings who count spears as a warlord
When brandished, and coats of mail as luxurious garments.

28. When he promises or threatens, the generous deeds
Hasten to fulfill the deferred command immediately.

29. Granting, if the chivalrous perish in their right,
Their due share to the accustomed quarter - returning.

30. He turned his steed, so the dust of the plain rose up
As clouds, though the dust had been only motes before.

31. And he disciplined the unruly lads of Banu
Zurara, so they chose for it chains.

32. He reformed everything of theirs that was corrupted
And set aright everything of theirs that leaned.

33. And Moses ascended into the heavens but did not find
In them an escape from him, so he came back descending.

34. Nor could Baldh determinedly withstand her Lord
From the raging lion unleashing projectiles upon her.

35. You would have reminded him with the spear - had he forgotten -
And taught him with the sword - had he been ignorant.

36. And saved him from the onslaughts of the squadrons that he
Met you angrily, so flung away the squadrons.

37. You surrounded him with conquest, but when you had conquered him,
Surrounded him with favor, bounty upon him.

38. Had you not confronted him, and he saw how much
Usefulness you gain through valor, he'd have come to you pleading.

39. You bestowed upon the living Bakr and Taghlib
And their beasts of prey - until we thought you their heir.

40. On the day of Manwail, as the right guidance
Grazed his claws or thought to grasp,

41. You warded from Islam - which if it were struck
Would not remain henceforth a person, diminished.

42. If they delayed it from your endeavors, it will indeed
Restore the days of the ancient men of valor.

43. You contended with a thousand of them in eighty,
And emboldened them until you repelled the great armies.

44. Your ransom - men, when truth avoids them,
Evade the everlasting glory, reliant.

45. So whoever of them stayed behind, you spoke out,
And whoever of them spoke, you acted.