1. May you come nearer, my country, as youth returns,
Now that this longing in me is fulfilled, where is youth?

2. God has softened the intent, though the young man
Must bear the hardest of trials and torment.

3. I converse with you through the nights
In constant reproach that grows ever more bitter.

4. When you would apologise, you were answered,
Excuses vanished, all talk came to an end.

5. I grieve for you in every limb,
in each hidden hair there is a flame.

6. I lost you just when I lost my youth,
else no single misfortune would have felled me.

7. For me, you two can have no substitute,
No other country, no borrowed raven hair.

8. But white hair comes with faded youth
Which I must bear, far from my homeland.

9. Who bears long nights will know their kind:
Soft talk and quarreling intertwined.

10. My sunrise of glory is a gazelle
Veiled by swords and shielded from harm.

11. For it I spent my blood and my money,
Hoping to gain its favors in return.

12. Around the lofty dome, my people
Like raging lions roused to anger.

13. Its verandas and terraces
While round it the desert lies vacant.

14. When they sought my blood, they were not content
With those who bear the dust of tombs.

15. A dove starts at the least hint of danger—
How much more the claw and beak of the hawk!

16. Your distance from me keeps me far away—
Why do you not seek to come closer?

17. You turned from me in fear of shame. Awake!
Does the beloved find fault with the bloom?

18. In Alexandria, a heart is mine,
Though in Egypt its body lies in ruins.

19. It gives you its secret and open obedience,
Working not in hope of reward.

20. That dear mouth made me laugh one day,
Though now for it I weep and wail.

21. Every treaty watered those promises,
New pacts overflowing prior bonds.

22. I spent nights of ecstasy on its island—
Nights of magnificence, had I known.

23. Had necklaces been strung for singers,
I’d not have adorned my neck with pearls.

24. The full moon over it is like a pool of water
Spilling light in abundance.

25. It illuminates the mosques—it glows
With a brilliance that equals the holy shrines.

26. Its minaret flanked by the lighthouse,
Both full of wonders and strange events.

27. A young girl facing an old man—
Prolonged estrangement stretched out between them.

28. God gives water to the water bearers,
And uncertainty within its denominations.

29. How often it brought me a gift, drawing near
A lover, though avoidance cleaved us apart.

30. In its ancient gate, an old love
Reminds me of walks through it long ago.

31. Its gulf is like a sharpened sword,
Tossed in the winds, ever restless.

32. It stretches like a bend in the river,
Though no vessel can traverse its expanse.

33. The croaking of frogs is loud upon it,
Its chariot clamorous and turbulent.

34. The winds dress it in coats of mail,
Though there is no stabbing nor blows.

35. Branches dance along its edges
Like a drunkard deep in his cups.

36. Birds trill a soft melody above it
To gently enrapture hearts.

37. How many priests I knew in its church,
Their venerable beards like domes.

38. How many gatherings in its halls,
Where loved ones and friends would meet.

39. The salt sea rages like a stallion,
Foaming when whipped by the gales.

40. You’d think its ships a troop on the march
When the high winds send them forth.

41. I remember the palace of Faris and el-Moalla,
Where advice and counsel were found.

42. Now it is ruined after its prime,
As if lightning struck the dunes.

43. Nights destroyed its lord’s kingdom,
And how the wadis gushed over its legion!

44. It became a slum where the misguided come at dawn,
Its palace now empty and derelict.

45. The wailing women mourn over its remnants,
While wild plants spring up in its courtyards.

46. In those poppies, my companion, it was torn apart,
Its garments rent through from this.

47. Buds showed from its ruins that seemed
Like red wounds the rains disclosed.

48. The morning breeze moves them to look
Like seas of blood coursing out.

49. As if the crimson wine had spilt out,
And petals of poppies make up its bubbles.

50. You’d think every stalk has a coal
Enkindled into flaming crimson.

51. As if its buds are gaping wounds
Opened wide in torment and agony.

52. Treasures once called forth gold—
But, alas, that buried hoard is gone.

53. The summit of az-Zahiriya is my place of stay,
Though our mounts step down its slope.

54. Especially when its sand is clothed
In what once were the clouds’ robes.

55. How many days we talked on the sand,
Like clouds shedding their rain.

56. Talk delightful as the name it bears,
Quenching, like cool water, a brother’s thirst.

57. We sat with the sands as our cushions,
The vines’ leaves our shelter and screen.

58. On the dunes, small bushes took root,
While the branches held ripening fruit.

59. The two palaces loomed like a pair of legs
Distant, diminished by the mirage’s veil.

60. They hosted two companions through the nights—
No separation came between them.

61. But soon they will be forced apart.
Does any bond withstand time’s erosions?

62. My brothers in that place have from me
A love untainted by any bitterness.

63. They now rest beneath the dust,
While their fragrance stays with their shirts.

64. I hope the nights will bring us together,
Though yearning makes that wish futile.

65. How many purposes come, only to meet
Obstacles the mind had not reckoned!

66. How often I resigned myself to fate,
Yet none recovers from melancholy.

67. Along with confessing my sins, I will pray
For even sinners’ prayers may be answered.

68. Peace be upon those lands and their people,
A wholesome peace, ever repeated.

69. My tongue recites it—as does my pen,
And time itself, though books may fade.