1. When will my camels be loaded up
And my yearning tied with ropes

2. To the summit of Marran's monastery -
So I head to Al-Ghotah from Daryaa.

3. I sped my camel through the valley
Where the garden's expanse is outstretched,

4. And the standards of flowers like
The slain's blood clots congealed.

5. Arable lands where the rivers
Of goodness cascade down,

6. And a garden the April clouds
Have perfumed with their drizzling.

7. The roses and myrtles have extended
Their hems, laying out their carpets,

8. And its birds always soar about it
Chirping within and fluttering.

9. Our shepherd there herds the wildlife -
Each group tends to its own thread.

10. Leave the wall be - leave it -
If its plan intrigues you.

11. Describe its design if you are
Of description and arrangement.

12. Describe the prayer niche - describe the one
Who built it and its decoration.

13. Does not an imam fear -
Standing in the niche - his deceit?

14. Focus your eyes on the qiblah
If you attempt its centering.

15. You will see a sultan of beauty whom
The eyes never tire of unleashing.

16. Its righteousness forgives its sins
While the sea is turbulent and choppy.

17. A place whose April bounty was never
Lessened or withheld.

18. We were blessed in Damascus -
A blessing that is no illusion.

19. Oh, its bliss, since it
Is immersed in bliss!

20. Oh, its glory, since it
Is the mosque's pride!

21. Contemplate it - you will find in it
The prerequisites of beauty conditioned.

22. You see the excess of a builder who
Secured the observers, leaving no gap.

23. Let your reflection meander
If you wish, to ponder and evaluate.

24. You will find it perplexes thinking
And occupies the mind's sketching.

25. When the engraved pearl
Smiles convexly from its surface,

26. And the proportioned, delicate line
Of text inscribed with hailstones,

27. You see the restless observer
Who never tires of gazing.

28. It is paradise on earth -
Could I be exaggerating paradise?

29. Palaces between which trees
Line the rivers densely planted.

30. So from a palace beauty donned
Its walls and spread across its surface,

31. To a boulder as though pearls
Coat its surface with their coating.

32. Come, look at the colors
Mixed with the lights in fusion.

33. At mosques not
Of reality outside the imaginary.

34. You will find in it the legends
Of vegetation and myths.

35. So the trees therein have bunches
Of beauty tightly packed,

36. And the fruits therein have an elegance
The glance flings down loosely.

37. You see the excess of a builder who
Secured the observers, leaving no gap.

38. Types between sweetest fig
And smoothest apricot.

39. So from a palm tree and from a cypress
That competes with the other in height.

40. And from pomegranate groves
Lined up along the walls.

41. And from an apple of ruby-red
Topped with a cone.

42. And from a jujube of yellow
Inscribed with saffron lines.

43. It saddened the doves of Yemen
And their ring-necked turtledoves.

44. Our life was not locked out
From the gates of paradise.

45. Nor were we poured at the door
Of Gihon such affliction.

46. No spies provoke the lazy
To wake or rouse them.

47. They are cloaked from April
With countless unmatched covers.

48. So how much my life was mixed
By one I loved and their meddling!

49. And how much my soul was marked
By someone I knew not to mark!

50. Dragging the train of my gown
In their courtyards with gathered skirts.

51. Obeying the command of a soul
To kill - lethal and knotted.

52. Until old age sufficed me -
Content without embalming.

53. My cheerfulness withered
Or not - so twist it!

54. I stripped myself of reason's
Bridle, frayed and unraveled.

55. So beware implicating me
In what I hate to be implicated!

56. How much has time disappointed me,
Yet I have not accepted its disappointment!

57. For neither were souls created
To be beaten down with the stick of humiliation.

58. Nor were hides created
To be branded with the marks of disgrace.

59. My chastity refused for me
To enjoy such a life or tie its knot.

60. And my asceticism from the dinars of wealth -
So leave off its cents!