1. My passion stirred one day on the slopes of Iban
A dove lamenting on the branches of a vine

2. A dove moaning at dawn in the bushes
While your eyes brim with tears of longing

3. So blame me for loving one who whenever
I seek his pleasure, he spurns me and turns away

4. Do you ask how I fare and what love does to me?
Should not the sight of me spare you from asking?

5. Enough, the torment I have endured
In my burning glances is enough for me

6. A roe deer I fancied came willfully closer
The fires of love and passion blazed as he drew near

7. I glanced at him and he bent his head shyly
His eyes fluttering towards me enchantingly

8. I saw, it seemed, lightning flash brightly
High up, gleaming in the horizon

9. And it added fire to a lingering old flame
That still burns hotly inside my heart

10. A girl of sixteen, more beautiful than one of fourteen
For a girl of fourteen does not match sixteen

11. When she passes me a cup from her soft hand
I tilt it slightly to wet my dripping mustache

12. And she generously allows me to take a fruit
That rivals, when it reddens, the red samtu grapes

13. Is she worried for me, for she knows if I
Do not visit her, she will come to me

14. For there lies buried the poet Imru al-Qais
And Qais too lies buried in Oman

15. What good will I gain, if to escape death
I do not travel, bound by promise and faith?

16. Leave me be, and let my hands roam free
To seek my fortune and unfurl prosperity

17. For I saw sustenance comes only to one
Who strides forth with purpose and ambition

18. I say to my friends in the dark of the night
As our eyes stray to the tail of Suhail

19. And Suhail's star glowers in the blackness
Its sharp gleam like tempered Indian steel

20. It flickers in the sky’s face as if it were
A frightened heart constantly throbbing

21. For the she-camels are tired of travel
Plodding heavily like ships blown off course

22. And the others leaned over till their chests
Touched the ground, too weary to straighten their necks

23. Recite to us every subtle, eloquent verse
The yield of nomadic life and oratory

24. And sing the smooth compositions of Jorol
Melodious in their delicate themes

25. Eulogies of the exalted Ali ibn Muhsin
Whose chanting makes all other poets jealous

26. A youth not distracted from glory and knowledge
By the vain pleasures of play and amusement

27. When our provisions run low, we journey
To him, buoyed by hopes he will sustain us

28. His pillars of glory rise high, and his
Tireless efforts shine like the radiant moon

29. And the strokes of his feats in battle
Scatter the hosts of enemies, mail-clad and speared

30. Strokes inscribed with miracles, penned with the blood
That poured from warriors in the valley of Auj

31. Showing you the valor of Kaeb and Antar
On the morrow of battle or the eve of combat

32. They tell of the sun in the sky's liver burning bright
Illuminating the whole world with its light

33. Marvels of the Most Noble, exalted over all
While the two moons circle below his station

34. When I try, praising you, to compose
My tongue brings forth the rarest marvels

35. Truly, praising you is like honestly
Repeating sevenfold praise of you