1. Stop the camel, her steps have drawn near, her weariness is complete
Ask the abode of my joy if your question will bring it healing

2. I know not the ruins amidst the clearly shining valley
For long has it been desolate and only its traces remain

3. If I say I forget the abode of Layla in al-Nawā
Her image is pictured in the furthest reaches of my soul

4. I had hoped to attain union with her before we parted
But my parting and union with her have become clear to me

5. There remains only a burning anguish igniting my thoughts
And the false hopes and strayings of my wishes

6. I have no pact but that her memory should recurrently revive
No union but that her phantom should visit me

7. I wished for Layla after she was gone but truly
I wished from her only an unattainable fantasy

8. The capital flourished when Jaʿfar al-Khalīfa returned
Her beauty and charm went back to her

9. Its air cleared when he came to it and its obscurities
Were unveiled from it and its north wind blew

10. It had been covered in dust and the sides of its crescents darkened
And the disorder of its condition became evident

11. When you are absent from a land and head for another
Its sun disappears from it and its crescent is veiled

12. By you the horizons of the countries become fertile
Can the world carry you while you are its adornment?

13. What blessings has God conveyed to us?
Their restoration to us and our receiving them were because of you

14. So from your radiant face good news comes to us
And from your open hand its plenty flows to us

15. You possess every plain in Mecca when its furniture
And its mountains belong to others

16. And you, O Banū al-ʿAbbās, are the uncle of Muḥammad
The right wing of Quraysh when their left wing are others

17. I was pleased that the Caliphate was established among you
Encamped, not fearing it would transfer

18. Yours is its inheritance and truthfully from it, no one else had
Anything but its name and false claim to it

19. The Banū Ḥarb and Marwān have woken up
In an abode of humiliation, stripped of all honor

20. They lower their eyes in anger and their souls
Reveal gazing looks expressing weariness

21. Whoever shows enmity to you
Is plunging into a pitfall from which there is no escape

22. Whenever they incline their necks toward strife
There is equilibrium in the passing swords

23. Beneath those their enemies’ souls desired
Is their perdition in both worlds

24. Burnished Indian swords white and newly sharpened
Their chests split open and their skulls cloven