1. Insist that she return my words, or blame me,
Leaving behind some of my nonsense.

2. This is the house, but for what decay has marred,
And the rubbing of harsh winds and pouring rains.

3. If you do not stop for a moment for yourself,
Then stop for those ruins, for my sake.

4. And if you wish, then blame me, for my passion,
When tears run out, returns to blame.

5. I shot my eyes at the gazelles yesterday, but missed,
And the archers struck me with the gazelle eyes.

6. I care not what remains when my place is
To be worn down by love, and not to wear down.

7. Had I been first in love, I'd not have stood for it,
So how can I get even when love came first?

8. My excuse is an old sickness that has twisted
Its coils through time around a thousand like me.

9. It killed a cheek mole on a blushing red camel,
And wasted away a beautiful soul on a camel.

10. Some saw the other in love as an example,
So they died - and death from love is a kind of murder.

11. My tongue is not for the mean, nor my hand,
Nor my camel for the stingy, nor my saddlebags.

12. My hands delivered me to the graceful writers,
So Ja'far was praised in word and deed.

13. He pledged an open palm, with no dew gathered,
And a loyalty never to be undone.

14. Not all called generous with them have parity
In noble deeds, or anything like.

15. Those were clouds that passed by, and you can see
The range between sprinkling and downpour.

16. If some separate from us in their glory,
They do not separate in their copious bounty.

17. We used to see some drops after the others,
But when we gathered them we passed them to the whole.

18. We found it in the shade of generosity shining,
A face that showed us the sun in that shade.

19. Nobility whose party you joined in generosity and giving freely
You avoided the aim of the envious backbiter.

20. You stay up working but nothing damages
Your glory if you stay up working.

21. Just as Satan never touched Adam though he tried,
Nor did Abu Jahl blot out the Prophet's light.

22. How many distinguishing marks of honor you have been given,
A radiant mole on a Talib who was heedless.

23. And how much blessing in a tribe - if you had cast it
On a mountain, it would have collapsed from the tremendous weight.

24. I thank you with my thanks, to one who opened my field
With his gifts, and I have not given nearly enough.