1. No sorrow is resolved at the dwellings of sorrow,
And meaning with songs is given meaning.

2. Our separation kept vigil, and all but abandoned
Its wont at the rejection of intimacy.

3. After no worth, when a party of them
Passed by me on the road here.

4. The needs of my soul folded
To a wand, in its coolness bending.

5. Your palm left me so sickness sighed
Only in ribs leaning on love's languor.

6. Had she seen the event of the dye
She'd have cooed and shown softness.

7. I fool thought youth against the length
Of nights a provision, not to deplete.

8. And I see fate indebted, retracting
All that neared, distancing what drew nigh.

9. The chicks in downy feathers reckoned,
When they reckoned, the small an elder.

10. They plead in a fraud given the name
Of a youth, less than the vaunted elder.

11. Each bygone I forgot save nights
Bygone, with lightning for us and rain.

12. A wine-worshipper, I clutch a gleaming cup
Its brightness spilling, I spill blood.

13. Where I fear no time, and lend no ear
To the constant sermonizer's ear.

14. Professing piety in sternness, the prig's
More benighted that he show righteousness and draw near.

15. Fearing the slip of fate, I wish
A return from God's wont may come to pass.

16. You blamed me not for my candor, but blamed
That I thought well of God, presumed.

17. If you berate openness, then cease
To count me guided or rightly-guided.

18. He is freer in what he parcels out
Than to exceed his arms' reach, or glean from others.

19. He grants the dual achiever, wastes no new
plots on the dual enemy.

20. His goodness being general, he joined in us
By the whole of goodness those who aren't ours.

21. Rights enslaved him, and the freeman has woken
A slave in obeying the spring of bounty.

22. And refused it be said generous
but for him, deeming others tight and mean.

23. Firm resolutions, if dealt to fate
It deemed him an age-mate, two spans.

24. Covetous haste shunned by the deliberate; some
business impatient to the deliberative.

25. Achieving by conjectures what they sought
Through crafted news, artist excelling artist.

26. Seek not counsel from those who chose an opinion,
And seek opinion from those who conjecture.

27. Some men wished that if contended with he'd contend,
Then a fool is disappointed and chagrined.

28. From the judicious in wishing, while wishing,
That the elect be in what's wished.

29. He gently restored Iraq's rule to it,
A steed in its paddocks, gave it rest.

30. How often dissuaded from it, though it left him,
Returned in returning, humbled.

31. The sea runs aground in the shallows of Bani Fayyad,
When our hands drew it churning and gushing.

32. Mediating worthlessness, they summon not
To glory from there, or from here.

33. They left Iraq's sure ground, exploring -
What land is kinder recalled or more hale?

34. Between Dayr al-Aqul, settled, its shaded
Occupant gazing toward Dayr Qunna.

35. Where the olive overnighted, above it the palm
Leaf over it singing its song.

36. No works but for noble ends pursued,
And works of glory constructed.

37. The generous scion of generous stock
Is fair in eyes, his fairness enhanced.