1. I do not shun passion or abandon dignity,
Nor drink deeply as though sobriety were shameful.

2. I strut about, my belt loose, on the roads of love,
Tipsy, happy, my gown hitched up.

3. From Urj to Balikh, to gardens of mint,
With slender willowy green boughs weighed down by dark fruit.

4. To Dayr, its hill girt with marjoram and flowers,
To the wilderness, haunt of wild beasts and hunting ground.

5. To Jawshan ringed around by lofty ridges,
To Qirqisiya with its fair minarets and causeways.

6. To Marj or to those meadows and pastures,
To Salihiyya, my home, and to Butnan, my rest.

7. I wander to waste or woodland, none to chide me,
None to dissuade me, should I go or stay.

8. The abodes of Saif ad-Dawla now far removed,
Undone by the hands of fate and time's caprice.

9. Amidst whites and greens, reds and yellows,
green boughs sway gracefully, supple as pliant limbs.

10. Above streams gushing, above rivers flowing,
The birds took fright at the bleeding prey.

11. The warbling does not alarm me,
Nor the whistling Francolin, the bustard's call.

12. The singing of the skylark or the trilling Turtledove,
Or a fair one disrobed, her wrists' bracelets jingling.

13. Brief were my days with her, alas my fleeting days!
Censurers, no shame to me, let shame pass bare of raiment!

14.
Leave me be, though I chose the love of maidens over matrons.

15. Not by your choice did I fall in love – and what love is by choice?
I pine for soft cheeks and dangling tresses,

16. Dark down above languid eyes, cheeks flushed red.
Jasmine and fire both took part in creation,

17. Sun and cold together gave form and grace.
They showed no coyness with kisses, nor disgust at union,

18. How often I lurked in the pastures, how often took to the wilds,
Gambling with them, then losing myself in their witcheries,

19. Roaming Rassifa, most elegant of haunts.
The minaret of Wasit like a star, gleaming from atop the watch tower.

20. A life of pleasure in the company of beauties and minstrels,
The Nile flowing over well-watered banks, plains of Dhufar,

21. Judham in the garb of friars and lay brothers;
A mirage from Mount Sinai like surging white clouds;

22. Game before the hunters, unprotected and prey to all;

23. Gazelles to ibexes, to oryxes and wild asses;
Talons and dogs concealed amid the dust they raise;

24. Sparrow hawks, cranes, and other quarrelsome waterfowl;
Sea cows in the estuary's deep curves;

25. Pearls upon the lovely Qusantina set and fixed
As ornaments by the engraving hand of the diver;

26. A sea of delights overwhelming all oceans,
Sycamores of Hauran whose boughs mimicked the rain,

27. O my life! How oft will my nights bring me
To the land of the Jarrah and the Sulaymi black tents,

28. Amidst a gathering of youths like field flowers, lions stout!
Raiding returns, taking the passes at dusk,

29. Drunk, knowing not sober from drunken hours,
For our justice was darkness, and daylight our excess.

30. O best Abu Fadl, winner even when the odds fell short,
Finest counted among the noblest stock!

31. Like a bright unflawed pearl encircled by mean pebbles,
You quenched the burning thirst in hearts aflame,

32. Joining your palm to the rope of glory, not price,
When Mudar's sons excel, the sons of ignoble stock take note!

33. Who rivals the elite of Saad's clan? Who contends with their like?
You make excuses for the pitfalls of the loyal,

34. And magnify the means of neighbors, thereby ennobling.
He who unsheathes the sword of enmity against you

35. Has unsheathed it only against a piercing blade.