1. A fantasy passed by, weakness visited, and a lover came and went
So renew with remembrance the old love

2. The night has passed in it, its morning is gone
And it has become a bright whiteness mixed with darkness

3. So a beloved came after separation
With a new connection in fantasy and in promise

4. When he appeared to me, I restrained myself for that is my way
In my waking and my slumber

5. He complained bitterly to the one obsessed with love
Who tomorrow in passion will be without a heart

6. I say to my friends: stop for me and detour
To four places where the living roam, not the dead

7. Places where I once stood, responding
To a caller who called me to passion and to the promise

8. And I dragged the train of my youth in bliss
In whiteness like rays of scattered suns

9. Leave me, leave me my friends, for I see
Every guide is not a real guide

10. And do not persist in blaming me, for my straying
I see it on the path of guidance

11. What is it to you, my corruption, that you seek
To reform a man who sold himself for corruption?

12. And if I was stingy with Saada's union
I would give myself to please Saada

13. A sly glance that casts hearts with its arrows
Defiantly from the bow of glancing, sharp as a sword

14. I see people in the world like plants, and it turns them
Each has a reaper in its ruling, unto harvest

15. And every man among them is captive of his obsession
And he has in that no deliverance

16. Behold, the events of the nights are scents
On which speak the articulate and the inanimate

17. People are but those of affection or friends
And others whose hearts are desolate

18. Fortune leads all people to glory out of greed
But before glory is the path, rugged and twisted

19. I will travel in the east and west of the country
For company of glory or attainment of purpose

20. And reveal openly the truth of my claims
To every hand in the land and every caller

21. If you see my person dwelling in tranquility
Then my black heart is engaged in waging jihad

22. How many silent ones in the company, heads bowed
While their thoughts are in struggle and chase

23. When will you be a neighbor of the victorious king
To live the best life with the most generous master

24. Exalted and high, not to be compared in gifts
To Hatem Tai or Ka'b Iyad

25. You see the white blades in his enemies turn red with blood
When his pens are dyed with ink

26. So when he shook them, in his decree they cut
Granting the liquidation of clans or sustenance of worshippers

27. I earn profits and bounty by spending what
His palm contained of trinkets and baubles

28. To you my manners have led me, which
Are the hopes of servants, the refuge of humankind

29. And how many pits you crossed with majesty
Of righteous deeds, strong and helpful

30. And I gifted wisdom and prudence from my poetry
Not to a market of hypocrisy, but a market of loss

31. Goods built with eloquence and intelligence
Whose clarity is beyond pretense and increase

32. They emulate strands of pearls in wording yet they
When opened, stink of torn rags