1. I could not sleep, and what a sleeplessness that disturbs me!
I have no illness, and I have no beloved.

2. Yet I find myself still shocked
By news that previously did not concern me, and I frown.

3. If old age, anxiety and nightfall befall me,
I have built in me a resolution, and farewell cracks apart.

4. With the most valiant, judicious soul, I judge the days.
So whatever events may reap, I separate and disperse.

5. You are not, if Khālid’s reign lasts over you,
As no other was made eternal before Sāsā and Mūrāq.

6. And Kisrā, the shahinshah whose realm spread,
For him all he wished: a lofty palace and lilies.

7. Nor ‘Ād who was not saved by his riches from death,
Returning to Taymā’ a Jew made abject.

8. Sulaymān son of Dāwūd built it for a time
With lofty pillars and ties secured.

9. Matching the sky's Kubaydah in height beneath it
A courtyard, halls, plasterwork and moats.

10. For him a dais atop, and drinking-places,
Ambergris, basil, and wind perfumed.

11. Houris like statues, companions
Cauldrons, a cook, platters and trays.

12. That one, and his Lord did not make him immune from death,
But death came to him unswayed and unavoidable.

13. Nor the King Nu‘mān when you met him
Giving bonds among his people, awake.

14. Collecting from them the armaments, and below them
Seriphos in its rivers and the marshes.

15. Apportioning people’s affairs day and night
While they are silent and death speaks.

16. And ordering every evening
Phlebotomy, poultices, though he nearly faltered.

17. Every evening he is raised high
And transported at dawn drenched in sweat.

18. That one, but his godhood did not save him from death
Until, shrouded, he died in Sābā.

19. Today I shared the long hours with a band
Of camels watered, while the tents were fixed.

20. A yellow she-camel, redolent of musk with us
The regretful have grasped the coat-of-mail's hem torn apart.

21. When I say “Sing!” she rises with a wineskin
That nearly, when her palm turns, speaks.

22. A grilled lamb if we wish, stuffed with herbs,
And a gray-haired milkskin goat if she is slapped.

23. You see the gazelles from afar while she is beyond them
When those who taste her taste start to nibble.

24. Shu‘ayb remained dry-ground water for us
And overfull Sakhin saturated with spirits.

25. And a dreadful stony tract I crossed with a swift she-camel
When her family climbed on her she quaked.

26. She is the closest companion, while between her and I
Is a hollow expanse, abandoned regions and clefts.

27. She spends the nightfar from habitations as though
Jinns from Taiy’s tribe had terrified her at dusk.

28. From the uncouth Bedouin he sends me camel-milk;
That vexes and angers me!

29. I want none of your acts, you fool,
Whose ignorance pours forth unchecked.

30. The day of Shurāhil son of Tuwd troubles me
And the night of Umm Laylā is more bitter and binds me.

31. I have not been engaging in magic, but I thought
If an addled mind interpreted for me, I would speak.

32. Two friends between us, one jinn and one human,
Faithful, harmonized.

33. He speaks, and I cannot discern a thing he says.
My eye is not bleary, nor is his ruptured.

34. Gathering passion prudently draws nearer to piety,
While abandoning passion in misguidance is safer and preferable.

35. If a need turns you aside you cannot fulfill,
Take a bit of something else when it outstrips you.

36. That is nearer that you obtain its entirety.
Moderation is more lasting on the journey and more obtainable.

37. Do you claim for peers what you are not fit for
And preen while the son of your uncle is abased?

38. You were glad to gain by night a tryst
With one who betrays while betrayers catch up.

39. So the wealthy will be anguished by his wealth
And sometimes the needy gains and catches up.

40. O Father of Misma‘, whom you have wronged,
So champions supported him and exerted themselves.

41. The emancipation of al-‘Īs will surely visit you,
Praise to their backs is guaranteed.

42. By it shoulders in every abode shrug
And purse-ends are untied and loosened.

43. I forbade you your folly and supported you
Against your injustice, and the resolute mind is more compassionate.

44. And I warned you, a people you oppress,
Noble men. If lives do not end, you will converge.

45. How many a foe and land lie between Laylā
And a wilderness where the housefolk's scout wanders!

46. A pool yellow as tumeric whose surface
When the sweet water's taster sips, he spews!

47. A man traveled to you, and beyond him
Wastelands, spaces where the tentpegs drive.

48. Forbidden for you to answer his voice
And to know the passionate is harmonized.

49. A neighbor must let her pass
As the bolt slid into place in the door and withdrew!

50. By my life many eyes have turned
To the light of a fire blazing in Yafā‘.

51. They banter to two chatterers warming themselves by it
While the dew slept on the fire glowing red.

52. Two sucklings of juice whose mother's teat
Joined them to a black shelter instead of us parting.

53. Your hand, a hand of sincerity, so a palm beneficial
And another which provides when stinginess is suspected.

54. You see generosity openly flowing over his face
As the sheen adorned the Indian sword's blade.

55. But when the place tilted their saddlecloths
And there came into sight for them evenings' remoteness,

56. An eyelid's edge cleared the people of Dummuluq
Like the Khorasani shaykh's lower lids glistening.

57. A sincere man's youth comes and goes to them
With two eyelids full from bowls overflowing.

58. And a sincere man returned to them with an eyelid
And black ornaments sold in the auction bursting.

59. You see the people bartering in it while beneath them
Are children of the lineage, small and minced.

60. Long of hand, his lineage not sluggish,
A noble clan, his neighbor cannot be faulted.

61. So act while you live toward them
And draw near when people's eyes gleam.