1. The tents wish for protection from Khandaf,
Though their glory in honor built high;

2. Your place, while the horses bolt in fright,
Huddled in fear are their horsemen;

3. Your munificence, while the year makes the land barren,
When the clouds fail to bring rain;

4. Your patience in time of sore distress,
When sorrows exhaust their patience;

5. Your view in perplexing difficulties,
Death wishes to keep awake;

6. For you are, on the day angles attend,
The protectors of the army's flank;

7. And you are, on the day the lightning flashes,
The clouds of the chivalrous and confused;

8. And you are, when the patient grows weary,
The mountains of mischief and its pillars;

9. And you are, when sustenance grows scarce,
The revealing of the hidden truths;

10. And of horses that rain under armor
Frolicking to thrust with their blades;

11. When the voices of fighters grow hoarse
Their blood violently seeks to drink;

12. Then from them, when they attack,
Pounce the beasts and birds of prey;

13. As though the spears and the necks of men
Were the wells of pilgrims and their buckets;

14. You turned away from them, hurling reproaches,
Wherein their glory is utterly destroyed;

15. Your fame raises you to glory,
Where your neighbors are kept safe from harm;

16. When the abode was afflicted with injustice,
It contained the bliss of a happy life;

17. The wounds of the martyrs flow for them,
Though their courage tastes no milk;

18. It lights up the darkness and rivals the dawn,
The light of the faces and their crowns;

19. Their elderly boast of glorious deeds,
While the young aspire to glory;

20. You knew their hospitality well
On the morn following mirth and love;

21. Kindest to guests in wintry nights,
And most generous when autumn blows;

22. No singing girl spreads her train
For the ravens that prey to enjoy;

23. Staying with it the drinking and the rain pouring down
Cascade on cascade from the cloudburst;

24. On irresistible tasty wine, whose flavor enchants,
The vintages of which make one lose his way through time

25. Sweeter than the possession of a royal crown,
When the land declines under its riders;

26. On land made safe by hands in battles,
Whose inhabitants both awe and fear;

27. As though its routes and men
Were the hissing of reptiles and demons

28. When led by a warrior king
The guardians of the frontiers and its youths

29. Who possessed it with courageous hearts
Beyond the wilderness and its rugged ascents;

30. But when he who dies, as death awaits every soul
In time, when the term is concluded

31. A peerless woman of proud demeanor
Whose affair was like her own

32. The neighing of racehorses, their regret
The plain white forehead blazes

33. Most wondrous to her was a towering eminent man
Of many columned illustrious house

34. A fruitless kingdom which has a mere facade
Defended by the patience of its helpers

35. Even if Balkis is on her throne
Dubays is still her Solomon

36. My love for you is the most precious thing in life
And hence other loves have grown apart

37. I incur the wrath of kings over you
Unconcerned about their rage against me

38. I leave behind my homelands of delight
The dwellings of the wilderness being my home

39. I who am but a slave, if you would judge me fairly,
I guide to the highest and prove it true

40. If you should wish me to speak like the men
I am the measure of countries and plains;

41. Unveil then what you wish to attain
Its title spells success

42. It is for the house called Babylon,
Your person being its principal pillar

43. No neighbor to the house visits you, reproaching
Though countries separate us from each other

44. Help me attain the highest
Since patience has exhausted its supplies