1. I remembered, though my fidelity was not enough to forget,
The many mornings and evenings in Baghdad.

2. In my heart were pleasures
That joy had built, so it became a nest.

3. Gardens that granted me bounty,
Yet we did not plant the seed of good deeds.

4. I left its groves and went away with my heart,
And even if I tormented my heart, it would not perceive.

5. I sold its fine pearls for worthless coins.
If I had not made the purchase, I would have complained and been shabby.

6. With a bit of the treasures of the head of the eye,
It returns to the assembly of the remorseful as a bride.

7. It has a home that attracts Jews or Christians,
And it was generous though base and vile.

8. We proposed to it but the priest refused it for us,
Speaking to us while the church remained empty.

9. He spoke, Arabizing whatever he wished about it,
Customarily uttering incomprehensible gibberish.

10. Its dowry became a price he exaggerated,
In his view, while we saw it as paltry.

11. Indeed, let gold weigh against gold, for we
See love for it as worthless.

12. My heart fluttered anxiously,
While the tents bustled around it whispering.

13. It stumbled in confusion until
The tribes said curses against it, and it said "woe is me!"

14. It cried out against my passions with captivating
Charms, speaking silently.

15. When separation caused agony, they grabbed my forelocks,
And when meeting came suddenly, they let go.

16. It says, "I have lost a claiming lover,
And a day between you has ended as an evening."

17. My remorse is not worrying, for
I see it as a wilderness that will bring intimacy.

18. Leave me to self-abandonment; indeed a house
Becomes confinement once familiarity makes it home.

19. "Hide behind a mountain chasing fortune," it said,
While leaving our hearts harder than it.

20. Oh for one to convey to me the days,
Even if they are ashamed and cannot articulate clearly.

21. I will absolve you of all sins after it,
For it has left heaviness at my threshold and settled in.

22. It was an intoxication from which I turned away
Sober, and the sin of drunkenness is forgotten.

23. Destitution and affluence never combined,
Nor did anyone see good and bad fortune together.

24. A youth who revived the days of my memory,
And was a pillow out of them as fluff.

25. How often the turns of fate threw him as a ball,
His hands open wide towards me sighing.

26. His abundant overflowing generosity warded off
The wolves of changing fortune with rags.

27. He openly gave generously with gifts,
Then when blamed, he trivialized and concealed.

28. O Saad son of Ahmad, what are you called,
And O Radwa, when he claims descent from Qudus!

29. His talents blossomed, so you blossomed as a branch.
You were wholesome when the origin was wholesome.

30. He shone, so you drew light from him.
You were the moon when he was the sun.

31. You were generous with dew, so if mouths were kissed
With your bounty, they would be twisted and curved.

32. You were kind, so if lips were touched,
They would kiss your palm and be twisted.

33. With so much, O family of Ibrahim, did generosity live,
Yet time has erased it leaving only trace ruins.

34. The wind blew in the spirit of glory,
So they waved, and how often they were tossed about.

35. Naked with Canopus, a birthmark
Smelling its scratches with force.

36. Honor greeting those it touches
The next morning when honor puts on fine garments.

37. The envious die from it with an illness
That when treated recurs again, making them retrograde.

38. Yearning called me to cry out to you
So I set out willingly while fate frowns.

39. To witness your miracles with my own eyes
So sight will become what was not tangible.

40. How much by praising you I scattered pearls
On paper that did not stretch out in length.

41. Words were almost illegible lines
Yet the tongue attended, enunciating a lesson.

42. I followed the traces of your roads gathering
Pebbles, so make me smooth what is rough.

43. From your pure spring they gave me a draught
With which I returned the speck fivefold.

44. For God has made it an obligation on you
That will last forever as duty.

45. The prosperity of His lands east and west,
And the provision of His servants, Arabs and Persians.