1. My heart keeps tossing on the embers of passion,
And my body is tortured by all kinds of sickness.

2. I stood at the abode of the beloved, now desolate -
A courtyard, ruins, a well, and a playground.

3. I address the builder, and the builder is above it -
A preacher over the tents, chanting and sermonizing.

4. It became desolate, its signs effaced and altered -
Speeches, a throng, and murmurs moved about it.

5. My pact with it was that, on every meadow,
It would drag the trains of wandering about it and pull them along.

6. How many times did I become happy in its expanse and roll about!
As well as Sama and Saud - even Hudham and Zainab!

7. And who can help me to shake its chamber-curtains,
Which now in the familyfloat about and sink down?

8. How strange that it is absent when its phantom
Stings my heart, settled down and ensconced!

9. The attributes of beauty reached their farthest limits in it, so its beauty
Enchants the minds of beholders and captures them.

10. Its charms when it adorned itself made you desire
To see it wearing necklaces and rouge on its wrists.

11. Oh, its beauty on the day of farewell when there appeared
Cheeks, neck, temples, and slender waist!

12. I escorted it one day while, between my ribs,
Was a fire whose heat flamed up.

13. I see people in their innate nature and situation -
Their situation in character is only fickleness.

14. If I have little money, my worth is little to them,
And if I oppose them in intelligence and etiquette.

15. And if my money increases and I move to wealth,
Then I have family, ease, and a welcome to them.

16. Oh, would that Sa'da and the nights and their promises
Would prove true to me in the promise or were lying!

17. I am amazed at what they have done, but after all,
This great patience from me is more amazing.

18. When a shower of joy comes from it,
Soon after comes a downpour of affliction.

19. So fate does not respond favorably in my joy,
As if, among all people, I alone were guilty toward it.

20. How many gatherings did I attend with the caravan,
Flirting with the leader and making genealogical claims!

21. And I would recite poetry that appealed to them -
Poetry by Jarir, Mimun, Qais, and Qutrub.

22. She-camels, huge of body, robust, would come to me,
Sometimes slipping off with my gear and sometimes drawing near.

23. My friends said about the journey - and their words:
"Describe the garden where the garden is green and fertile."

24. But I said, "Leave off describing gardens and mentioning them,
And be earnest, for earnestness is best and most incumbent."

25. "Do not mention the Garden of Trellises and its fragrance,
Even if one of its colors pleases, enchanting the onlooker.

26. For if the spreading of the Greens pleases me in any way,
The rest of the Greens are purer and more fragrant.

27. A sovereign whose nature is gentle, an ardent desire -
More righteous than the lovely garden and more moist."

28. A light that, when the times of fate darken
And disturb the face of fate with grave events -

29. A sun over the world that illuminates it with its light
From east to west, from country to country -

30. A sword from the Merciful, drawn in the land,
With which He severs formidable affairs and strikes them down!

31. A lofty, smoothly flowing camel that the riders enjoy
When it glides forth in the living tribe's procession!

32. A copious sea whose surging casts forth pearls
And at times with the billows of tribulation, froths!

33. A rain whose drink revives the delegation if they alight with him -
It lavishes the two rivers upon them and pours them out!

34. He hands down enduring glory, victorious,
As well as help - and he is Hud, eternal!

35. Father of Tayyib, how often in the wastelands have
The she-camels of travel beckoned to you and importuned you!

36. Were it not for you I would not have crossed a land
Or been draped in the coat of mail, Polished and Flexible!

37. So thanks and praise to the Guardian if hope is not
Disappointed, nor is the meadow of generosity barren!

38. Let remain what the ringdoves cooed at dawn,
What a cock crowed, and what stars appeared!