1. She folded the house like a gilded book,
And passed by the ruins without bidding them peace.

2. She pretended not to yearn, nor to shed a tear
As the caravan passed, or to take the ruins as a moral lesson.

3. How often have I stood there with little to help me
Against tears of despair and much blame!

4. When life was hard the ruins said to my tears,
'Good fortune is not always for the early comer.'

5. I was travelling when dawn came to me with good news,
So I rose to greet it and be guided by its breath.

6. It came to me after weariness, muffled,
Fearing to be blamed or fearing the evil eye.

7. And it handed me a cup which I saw was wine,
And turned my mouth from the forbidden juice.

8. Would that when you made lawful to me
That which is unlawful, you had not made me thus drunk!

9. Oh the pleasures of life! Oh, its trials!
Oh Paradise with the torment of Hell!

10. We seized the pleasures of life - would that
Its pleasures were not blamed -

11. We are accused of baseness, though who would wish
To be the first tempter?

12. Events have turned rough and woken us;
We meet our loved ones only in our dreams.

13. O king who never stretched out a hand to my suffering
Nor ceased to have his fingers dyed with my blood.

14. Long ago his arrows flew wild,
Now he shoots us with his sharpest arrows.

15. He has sharpened his blade for my misery as though
He imagined the favours of your son Muslim.

16. You are the refuge hoped for, the pillar
Who has outlasted all destructive events.

17. Safe and honourable, he did not give way to fear
Nor conceal any shame beneath the cloak of nobility.

18. In this cruel world he shines like
A white patch on a black cheek.

19. He gave though none gives to him and was praised
Though there is on earth none save those who blame.

20. When his banner reveals a plan, victory over
The days is born immediately from it.

21. Every day he gains some prize from his enemy
And sees his lavish giving bear fruit.

22. The lightest favour is a heavy burden to him
And the heaviest debt a light one.

23. He has prepared every honourable person to help the right,
Feeding his enemies as one feeds the guest.

24. He glories in advancing on foot to war
And seeks only to be in the front line.

25. When it was time to part she could not check her flowing tears
Or find anyone to help her in her painful duty.

26. Then she spoke while the first drops of tears were flowing:
'Must you always be so far from me, always hurting me?

27. Do poverty, separation and old age
Combine against me because of you?'

28. I said: 'This is a parting which will
Send us back and hand us over to time. Know this!

29. Prepare supplies and outposts and court
The noble ones. Watch out for my vanguard!'

30. I will do my utmost to create a poem
Whose very words are sweet to chant,

31. And when she sees the beauty of its creation
She will say: 'How much treasure the ancients have left us!'

32. I will send it to her fresh, virgin, pure,
A worthy match for lines of highest worth,

33. The object of desire - and the Temimi led it
Below your lord's lines with those thousands....

34. 'Go forward, O swordsman, linger in the valley of hills!'
Will shout the reciter when he reaches Baghdad.

35. O sea! None but you refreshes me.
Men of earth do not deserve any thanks.

36. They are forbidden water with none to give.
They are not good clay for the major ritual ablution.

37. I thought I would meet their best eulogist
And see him enjoying life, not suffering,

38. Rich from your patronage without affectation,
Wrathful or frowning or amused.

39. I have called you to give after giving
And the brother of the new moon still calls the clouds.

40. You have attained the heights, higher than Mount Temim's crest.
None has tasted the bitterness of leaving Mount Temim