1. Stop at the deserted ruins
To moisten them with flowing tears

2. How dear a dwelling my heart holds
For those abodes and their former dwellers

3. How often have I dragged the train
Of my cloak over them and doffed dignity

4. And frolicked in their bright nights
Those short nights of revelry

5. And raced the steeds of passion, freely
Frolicking and flirting with the coquettish

6. Nor have I forgotten the bygone days
Of joyous living and fortunes fair

7. An era where we bent not for censors
Nor from envious chiding took care

8. And when the prime of youth flowed free
Pristine water of youth did flow

9. How oft plucked I from its branches
With my kisses, fruits and fragrant flowers

10. When kissed, her cheek would mottle
Paler midst the blush that rose

11. She turned from my embrace in coyness
And kissed not at the tryst she chose

12. How can I hope my heart will solace find
When bound by passion's pining throes

13. As if the wine from her lips a draft
Pure, with honey sweetness, flows

14. In pearl white dresses, rolled up sleeves
And ample waists the sashes enclose

15. You see, as if from a bough, her face
Veiled in the noonday sun's bright glows

16. She sways as gently as the pliant lines
Of script, vitality and grace she shows

17. The bracelets grace her wrists and they
Adorn her lovely wrists just so

18. The head-veil shades the effulgence of
Her visage behind its veil that flows

19. No more than I, al-Farazdaq pined
In his yearning from love's deep woes

20. Come now, O peerless composer of verse
With more that's facile yet splendid in its flow

21. Only confer on poetry, high station
If a scion of Muhammad's line, it knows

22. A lord, still soft, though the tribune of munificence he chose
No down on his cheek, though in virtues maturity he shows

23. With your virtues, build a minaret
Of glory and praise, loftier than all minarets rose

24. Modest in praise and vaunts, disdaining
Any garb of blame or shame that shows

25. With auspices blest, all eagerly come to you
Whether right or left of you their path goes

26. A cloud, when gathered, trailed
By the trains of twisting bracelets that enclose

27. A tumultuous sea that surges and swells
High above the billows' crash as they rose

28. Girt by glory before and behind
And to right and left of you it flows

29. The nights serve you in your judgments
As do the folded carpets on which it reposes

30. As if I saw Joseph in Egypt revealed
When I saw you in the desert exposed

31. Most high, an heirloom clad by He
Who clad the desert sands in lowly robes

32. By your justice, the arid wastes
Are now built up by peopled settlements that arose

33. By your grace, more honour and pride
Than Egypt or Aleppo or Zafar knows

34. Blood of Prophet, dispense your bounty's rain
For the greatness and might that you dispose

35. None can match the lofty station you claim
Or the magnanimity that you disclose