1. Alas! No confidant knew your secret,
Nor did an honest friend have access to it.

2. The wind blows on us in its breaths,
Bearing your fragrance and scent to comfort us.

3. So send it not except at night, for I
Am jealous of gatherings when it spreads.

4. And O cheek, blame me not, doing good,
For your blame on the beautiful face is ugly.

5. And one who says: "Stop the coquetry!"
For with old age it is shameful misconduct.

6. And the time for life's pleasures has gone
So weep at daylight with darkness screaming.

7. And the visitor on whom her braids have slept,
And whose beard, if he conceals it, smells.

8. So we spent the night, having no base desires,
Nor inclining to the wings, inclining.

9. Till the light of dawn appeared as if it were
Joseph's beauty in the well when it shines.

10. Correct, straightforward - praise and deeds -
Where praise is sincere and it is correct.

11. It shakes when praising the beloved,
As the boughs of acacia shook towering.

12. It is alive, lowering its eyes from prohibitions,
Yet to the heights it aspires towering.

13. Valiant in wars, protecting against dishonor,
Generous in guarding honored modesty.

14. Far-reaching, lofty, repelling harm,
Near in friendship, gentle and forgiving.

15. Firm when obedience is disobeyed; punishing
Gentle when giving the reins - forgiving.

16. Neither overwhelmed in hardships, submitting,
Nor complacent in luxury, capricious.

17. Preventing if it inclines to vanity; helping
Near if the divine is asked - granting.

18. With ambition never bending without possible,
And reason, if consulted, successful.

19. When paths to glory are obscured from foes
In them there are appearances and clarity.

20. Giving if giving diminishes; patient
If patience declines - more likely.

21. Congratulations to a land where he lodged
For he spreads freshness there, facilitating.

22. If he revives a dead man from poverty,
He is only Lazarus and Messiah.

23. And if he fought enemies, the least became
Hunted, while most of them laid defeated.

24. Two parties together, all with their bodies
Wounded, and in hearts' love, wounded.

25. So you routed all foes and took their spirits
With not one of your enemies breathing.

26. O mountain of might towering in glory
With love at its base and surrounding foothills.

27. You removed the flaws of fate in every land
Yet my poverty is a flaw in time ugly.

28. I had renounced poetry lest it offend
A frowning miser hoped for, morose.

29. Shall I live when this poetry is some of my virtues
A pauper in Homs whom I animate and pacify?

30. Love was ill but is now healthy.
That was the interpretation of this clear refusal.