1. I remember Baghdad in the prime of my life,
With glory nestled between Al-Rusafa and Al-Jisr.

2. A people who erected mansions that did not last,
Yet what they built endures in good memory.

3. They were the jewel of the East in its entirety,
Then faded, leaving their mark idle.

4. The majlis of Harun, though expansive,
Was crowded with the lords of prose and verse.

5. A king the East and West feared his might,
And dreaded that the day would pass without goodness.

6. The elite of mankind competed at his door,
Yet the scholar sat foremost among them.

7. Greetings to Baghdad, haven of deep thought,
For the eminent and pride once found there.

8. Greetings to that civilization, which
Was a marvel of that age for certain.

9. A life that shone in the East for a time,
Like the life of roses, lasting only till dawn.

10. A light appeared from it while the West slumbered
In the darkest ignorance, like the grave.

11. Glory to Him whose decree fate follows,
Taking it from ease to hardship and back again.

12. My fellow Easterners, is there an awakening
From that slumber, which my poetry hopes to inspire?

13.
Rouse, my dear kinsmen, for long has your night been,

14. And do not make your dawn the time of resurrection.
Does ancestry, tongue, and homeland unite us,

15. While illusion divided our thoughts?
Do I desire the Chinese man’s religion yet spurn

16. My brother and fellow countryman? Woe to that matter!
Awaken from the ignorance that has intoxicated you,

17. For perdition, my people, lies in that drunkenness.
Your soil is a religion for you, so follow it.

18. That is more right. Whoever rejects it is an infidel.
The advice of an Easterner who loves his country

19. And his brothers, not the religion of Zayd or ‘Amr.
It is a little in the heart, and I

20. Am content, despite it being little.
And in my breast is more - if I said it