1. I was greeted by abandoned abodes and ruins,
And dwellings with drawings made with ochre and indigo,

2. They ignited within my ribs the fire of passion
With blazes from their dwellers who were my intimates,

3. So the rain of my streaming tears watered their covenant,
It covers the hills with its heavy downpour,

4. It pours when the clouds are stingy with rain over the land
With a cloud releasing gentle, caring rain,

5. It waters the dwellings of singers with its flooding,
And every meadow of gazelles and fawns,

6. Among them is a group with strong companionship
They excelled in beauty above all beauty,

7. The eyelids of every soft-eyed gazelle among them
Shoot the heart of her lover with arrows,

8. And the figure of every smooth-cheeked doe mocks
His composure with her soft dark honey.

9. They wounded my heart the day they turned away
And so I turned from them in fervent love for what was in my thoughts,

10. And perhaps for many a night I wished for its darkness
Above every brilliant starry night,

11. Passionately stirring the yearning camels
In the wilderness between its plants and sands,

12. They were seen fearing the whips as if
Those whips bring death to the noble,

13. Melting them from the toil of every work
Between text and marginal notes,

14. So they seemed like ships in the daylight
Rising and descending in deep seas,

15. Longing for the return of attackers and promises of what
Had died of nearness, goodness, and union,

16. So I was deprived by the distance of dear neighbors
Of sleep, continuing in it the specter of my imagination,

17. And of the wonders is that I was given excuses after
The loved ones were denied to me by the impossible,

18. And the heart that did not forget them was comforted
After purpose by the lies of hopes,

19. Far from it that it would console him after their departure
The length of distance and changes of time,

20. So how much did I pour tears over the dwellings
Degrading them when they were once my glory,

21. And I debased my tears in the plains of her dwellings
Crawling when they did not crawl before,

22. And I asked them about their people and what use is
My questioning when the loved ones are gone,

23. Every day I still have no peace
From fervent singing or the beauty of gazelles,

24. Restless am I for the cooing of doves when calling
From the roof of an abandoned abode,

25. And for lightning flashes in the gloom of night
Unless I stay awake for its lofty glow,

26. What is it to me, the lightning I blame
Foolishly, and what is it to the clouds and me,

27. Kindling in my heart the embers of their fervor
My heart is theirs after the separation,

28. Nothing stirs of the defective breeze from fever
Unless I startle towards youth and north,

29. And I asked the blowing breeze as he knows
The essence of my decree and my state,

30. About a neighbor who did not cease to occupy
My thoughts with memories of days with them and nights,

31. O stirring of passion! The abode has become desolate
Of them though it was once filled with loved ones,

32. Make me remember the departed and leave me
With their love and reproach of one who finds faults,

33. And leave poetry to its composer unless it comes
To you like a pearl from my gazelles,

34. So I have gained from prosody in its ocean
Endless surging waves and others mere pebbles,

35. In every rhyme its schemes contain
Whatever you wish of wisdom and proverbs,

36. And in the richness of its pouring and quality
It never walks the walk of pretentiousness,

37. And it has magnificent meanings adorned
With words well-arranged like pearls,

38. Poetry which is permitted sorcery and otherwise
Just poetry when it comes is unlawful,

39. It makes no difference, my abundance, if I compose
Telling of stars, flowers, or my visions,

40. For you know virtue and you know its people
With the slightest thing of eloquent speech,