1. My beloved, why has the expanse turned fragrant with blossoms,
And why are the caravan leaders intoxicated with joy?

2. Is it musk being scattered by the morning breeze,
Or are revelers returning from Valencia with memories?

3. Turn aside, my beloved, do not walk upon it,
For it is talk like cold water on a burning liver.

4. Instead, stop without being commanded, and be guided by it
With hope for rain, so pray for drops to shower.

5. With Ma'an's bridge and terraces, verily
It is for the rain to water the terraces and bridge.

6. My country which housed my childhood tenderly,
Sheltering me, making it my final abode.

7. The gentle life's beginnings in my prime days of youth,
God did not wish for me to ever forget its memory.

8. We wore the garb of youth in it, donning its attire,
Yet we stripped ourselves of its adornments and it did not strip bare.

9. Is it our house where we spent our vigorous youth? What is it
That has folded away that youth and era from us?

10. A place most tender to recall, whose memory I never shared
With a heart except it shed red, copious tears.

11. Every place on earth that was a vigorous youth's birthplace
He yearns for, as long as he lives in grief.

12. And nothing compares to praising Mudawwar's soil,
Where the morning breeze fills its satchel with perfume.

13. Vegetation, as if the cheek bears its radiance,
Appearing amidst its heights like pearls or gleaming motes.

14. Water, like the Milky Way's ornate studding,
With flowers bedecking its banks, intertwining with blossoms.

15. Elegant like the meadows of past life,
Unfettered like the streams of youth now gone.

16. And they said, "Is Paradise what I have come to know?"
I said, "What Paradise is there other than this, the next one?"

17. Valencia, that turquoise gem,
Upon which pours every river pearl.

18. As if God created a bride, perfect in her beauty,
Fashioning for her from the dawn of youth an eternal life.

19. And if the distances have stretched far between us,
Guiding the glorious with it for a month.

20. In it is perpetuated my radiance at dawn,
When the sun smiles upon the lake and the river.

21. The souls of the winds converse through its flowers,
Casting away devils, which cannot approach in panic.

22. It is the white pearl, luminous from wherever you come to it,
And what can compare a pearl to the full moon?

23. My beloved, if I journey to it, verily it
Is the beloved homeland, to which I gave my heart.

24. I have not turned my feet away from it in abandonment,
Else my slippers would not have touched its green dwellings.

25. Rather, out of reverence for its soil which
Enfolds its youth struck down or its elders brought low.

26. However the times assailed them, what fate willed for them,
Their nights faded, so should fate be blamed?

27. Slumbering in the earth’s belly, devastated -
Dunes heaped over them, dust concealing the ground.

28. They fulfilled their time, so for every falling star,
God refused to let it be prey for falcon or eagle.

29. And for every predecessor, if he sought glory,
He freely galloped the steeds of high ambition unwearied.

30. A people, if you meet whomever you wish among them,
They welcome you, neither vulgar nor uncouth.

31. Their lifetimes have elapsed, yet they look
Upon the crescent moon, whether thin, thick, or full.

32. Three glories from the eminent folk,
Pure in renown among mortals and most chaste.

33. Bereavement has left me sullen, my eye and senses confounded,
Making this one pour forth water, and that one, embers.

34. It is enough of sorrow that I am distanced from them,
Not having met a confidante or friend.

35. Whenever I ask any rider about them
To bring me good news, he sends me only woe.

36. I ask him about righteous souls I knew there,
Yet he tells me what breaks the back.

37. A greeting to Khalil, whose water of life is spilled,
And dweller of a palace made resident of a grave.

38. And Azhara, who shone like the dawn - I used to glimpse
His youth, as the wakeful welcome the sunrise.

39. A youth whose qualities were not devoid of dew,
Nor was generosity lost to him, given or withheld.

40. He alternated between studying and composing poetry,
His fingers moving not slowly but quickly.

41. Tall, with the zeal of swordsmanship, yet gentle, as if
He strode with it through winter, treading lightly.

42. His natural talents nourished in him, like wine,
An easygoing manner, or resembling wine.

43. The smile of Muhiya spreads generosity, if
His shyness flowed into the face of a noble youth.

44. Where does fortune lie but where his writ is marked?
Never unsheathing dual blades for him, or sharpening.

45. I have folded up the nights folding them, though
It is with them he has veiled endurance and patience from me.

46. So his watering was not deprived of tears of sadness,
You would think the gleam of sprinklers has yellowed from dust.

47. My calling out in grief is no excuse for my calling out
When I make distance from his nearness an excuse.

48. Covenants, if you reflect upon them, you find
That which is sweet in life has become bitter.