1. How much peril beneath your abode,
And the most deafening clash of Ka'ba's foot.

2. In the grasp of the finest of my arms, unsheathing,
With broad forearms, steadfast against horrors.

3. Attended by gusts of musk, cloaking him,
He became like violent southern winds.

4. A freeman marching to war and its supporters,
As their claws emerged among the noble.

5. Valiant whose coldness is disabling when
The cold of some became crushed boulders.

6. He meets the lions with roaring warriors
In a lofty, stiff torrent, gushing.

7. Among them in the field of war, none but my brother,
With might atop the galloping steeds.

8. O heart that flutters when a lightning flashed
In the darkness of night, revealing lights.

9. It knew not from which land its sparkle gleamed
Beneath the gloominess when it shone, O swift one.

10. Smell the cheek of Suda, its lightning greeted you
At night, cease your hearing of the flowing lightning.

11. And to the blamer when he blamed me foolishly
I said: Do you wish by blaming to shorten me?

12. Rebuke me not if my eyes grieved
For the dwellings of my homelands and encampments.

13. The sides of the valley mocked since my flowing tear
Streamed down within it.

14. That abode which the branded one watered its grounds
From the eyelids of every weeping cloud.

15. Dwellings which I strutted in my youth's days
Promenading between gamblers and moons.

16. I dragged the train of frivolity playfully
In a grove, melodious, fragrant.

17. Its grounds were scented by the winds of union
As if unlocked within it were a perfumer's vase.

18. Who will restore for me those bygone nights
That went by delightful with my friends and vigil?

19. Relate to me the tale of love, O you who relates to me
The sweetest tales and evenings.

20. I would not, were it not for the intent of loved ones,
Have an east with tears responding to horizons and towns.

21. I spur every fattened, pampered,
Tamed camel, easy to control.

22. In an endeavor I spend my mornings and evenings wherein
Are hosts of friends and comrades.

23. When I crossed with them a desolate wilderness
It seemed inhabited to me with ruins.

24. The sands incline to the longing lover complaining,
Concealing and revealing me in turns.

25. Within them it doubted me like an ailing camel,
Above it the descent of integrals and journeys.

26. Past it sailed in the prime of kin, swimming
As if it were amidst it in a whirlpool and current.

27. It heads towards loved ones when I come with them
A flock competing, every flier of them.

28. They went away, and had it not been for wishes I would not have lived after them
And how long will I live on a promise and awaiting?

29. I did not arm myself with layered armaments
Of patience, but reminiscing softened them.

30. Remembering a time that went, departing,
And the goodness of my roots and dawns.

31. In them, had their vitality persisted,
The ear would have delighted in sights and visions.

32. I stood in the abode after the mixed company and its
Covenants with its dwellers had perished.

33. I restrain my tears fearing the perceivers
In places they evacuated, without marks and traces.

34. Leave me from blame, O you who blamed me foolishly
For what benefits you to rebuke and warn me?

35. The abode is that of my loved ones who went away
And my fervor is my fervor, and thoughts my thoughts.

36. So what is this standing when its landmarks that
Bared me of coverings remained upon me?

37. So how much flowing tears did I pour on the ruins
Weeping abundantly on soil and pebbles!

38. I wished to find rest if a southern wind blew
Traveling the night in a sea of tar.

39. Perhaps it may inform me of news of them
And delight me with mentioning the union of my secrets.

40. I preferred their visitation after they went away
O remoteness from where my passions and preferences lie!

41. After the living left, nothing remained of longing
Except remembering news and reports.

42. Since they were gone, gone were my bliss and refinement
My fate disciplined me, and I presented excuses for amusement.

43. I have no haven that healed my affliction and worry
Except the singing of my gazelles and poems.

44. When the caravan vied in reciting them, the words
Burdened them, of the most eloquent composer and strewer.

45. So who rivals me in them? Where is for him in them
The sweetness of my writing and reciting?

46. So how many songbirds of poetry I preceded,
Preceding them in it in every field.

47. They probed my rhymed prose so they probed what
My instinct composed of peerless speech.

48. They melted before it as lead melts when
You raise it when you test it over the fire.

49. Whence is the excellence of the ignorant over me, numerous as they are,
Like my help when it appears and dawns?

50. It appears and their souls crave its wonders,
Beauteous even if they know not my knowledge and worth.

51. They acquiesce when my love verse shakes them
As the breeze shakes the branches of acacia and caves.