1. The book that books aspire to has arrived
From a radiant author whom fame exalts

2. From the most eloquent speaker, generous giver
Whose dictation and writing is most sublime

3. Had I strewn it with joy and delight
I could not fulfill its right, that owing debt

4. Its words are gems, brilliant Fārūqī
Dispelling venom, curing any hurt

5. Unique compositions, wherever recited
Bringing joy to the living, life to the somber

6. O sender of snow and clouds, as was known
From your lips and the dew of your palms that’s sipped

7. The white of the snow is clad in your depiction in gold
As if it were silver dusted by gold

8. From Sa‘d is it said that clouds in it
Are white, unlike clouds that rabbits have clipped

9. Not like the red torrents in Tripoli’s valleys
Is this whiteness, this wondrous spectacle

10. If one claimed to depict it, I would say to him
You have depicted, but the conspicuous you have missed

11. The enemies' blue, the clouds' white over Damascus
As if they never were, nor were the clouds

12. Not to mention the constant drizzle in its valleys
And claps of thunder the hills have kept

13. The water has gushed, overflowing
The earth shook and quaked, disturbed

14. The difference between Damascus and heavens for us
Is heavens know no toil, no suffering

15. O lightning, tell me, and O line of clouds, do you see
The sword or books more truthful in their accounts?

16. The clouds and lightning one after the other like a conqueror
Whose trail is smoke and flames that erupt

17. Or like mares whose shoulders sang
Their voices like the goldsmiths' hammer blows

18. My Master - out of deep love, when you are absent
It is as though you are with us, accompanying

19. Thus everything glorious in Damascus
Its sister city Aleppo has shared

20. Afflictions by Divine Decree transpire
Yet according to One's Wisdom are kept

21. I wonder at myself and others, our longing
For an increase in life that is nothing but fatigue

22. If we are rained upon heavily or harmed in some way
By snow or fire, the cause we have not grasped

23. By God I swear, were it not for our Creator's Forbearance
Tenfold the evils we commit would have been our ruin

24. What an age is ours, in its fickleness!
Piety, knowledge, and manners have become lowly

25. I find solace in the sun's decline from Saturn
If I am outranked by another, it is no surprise

26. Though roses may wither in Aleppo
The moist fruit is still firewood in its homelands

27. My youth passed as fresh water grew old into ice
Thus do conditions shift and transform

28. O describer of the flood, your depiction left listeners awed
Heart and fear of its descriptions are owed

29. How many strong leaders from your ranks came forth
And excellence continued, father succeeded father

30. They crossed the span of books, if writing
And spread the discourse of the orator, if speaking

31. If competing, they excelled, if narrating, were truthful
If consulted, were gentle, if battled, were victorious

32. Secret writing - nay, the secret of writing - is among
Your arts and sciences, sought by students

33. Thanks to Allah's Grace, whatever you boast
Scribe and pen acknowledge and confirm

34. Sweet to taste, gentle to hear, when
Quick-witted, beautifully salt, just like reeds

35. The slender branch, wrongfully compared,
The saliva, wrongfully said to be hail