1. I return seeking the past of a youthful life,
My passion from remembering love and my ardour,

2. And I prepare my riding camels though none will guarantee me,
And I call out from the ruins though none can hear,

3. Yes, longing contents the ardent though fruitless,
Even if the intention was not content before the resolve,

4. We stood with spectres of passion and torment,
And shades of humiliation for love and devotion,

5. Towards steps made unsteady by the journey above,
Towards bodies bent in the bowing of meadows,

6. Never did the light of dawn guide but to
One who sells himself to misfortunes.

7. The dwellings of a people were clad and stripped bare,
Yet no home guarded like a vigilant mother,

8. Rahiba sold beauty at the feast of wine,
Increasing through meaning in stunning grace,

9. She trod the earth with slow steps, allotting
For herself in the heart a swift gait,

10. As if a perfume-seller said to the caravan halt!
Saying lower your trailing hems and pause,

11. I bequeath it as tears flow in their hue,
Dyeing them from her cheek in the morning dew,

12. As if the ray of fire in her cheeks,
Repels the sparks of fire within my ribs,

13. The fever's time is my time, and the doe of its thickets
Is with me, and the spring of life within it my spring,

14. Nights overwhelm every beauty and refuge,
Each in solitude from my mouth in a companion,

15. If I tend to another in a moment of separation,
I make amends from my union through an intercessor,

16. By the ember of night I found my way,
With a lightning spark as guides for the confused,

17. For a need by the sands' edge was the sun roused,
Until it rose no longer in obscurity,

18. Faces have turned from my time and I see
No signs of return in their backs,

19. The ugly reproach my white hair if they see
The dawn's light beneath my decrepit form,

20. Yet I have not grown old, though in weeping for you
The blackness of my youth's prime turned white in my tears,

21. And she said you left us and slept soundly,
Greetings to your phantom, how desolate my bed!

22. I discarded passion saving discretion,
And would not be misled therein from an ignoble stand,

23. I was gentle in leisure but the tether
Of my struggle turned in the hand of my will,

24. I will mount it rugged clothed in resolution,
Exposing every rip in the spacious lands,

25. If it crosses a land it readies for another
Aqueducts never struck by a flock's bells,

26. Guarantors in needs each distant,
And seekers of hopes each cut off,

27. It visits the tribe of Abdel Rahim, ascending
With its hooves the green of every meadow,

28. Alighting by watered dew sparkling
A spring and valley of hospitality wide,

29. It sees praise as a brand and eulogy suspended
For them between intentions it has and forgetfulness,

30. With them is one who wards off calamity,
And glory in them a brother and ally,

31. With them a grace of companionship
That nurtures roots from a lofty branch,

32. They defended their honour so it was spared
What armour does not guard against,

33. And they gained by pens that roam with fingers,
Thrusts of spears that lengthen with resolve,

34. The clan of every weaned from vileness and spite,
Born and nurtured in the bosom of generosity,

35. If they join in alliance they increase in the truest scale,
And if they vie they match in the fullest feast,

36. Though a neighbor's barn collapse or a house decline,
Many a steadfast ally for the praiseworthy remains,

37. May God preserve the uniter of their hopes,
Anointing with wealth every amount,

38. And the keeper of the herd of favors, though it would not
Be kept save in a vanishing hand,

39. Brother of war, wherever its Lord was its Lord,
And its heroes of prostrating and kneeling,

40. Like the wind in character when blended with it,
Yet to the wine cup not enslaved,

41. And admonishers who restrain his excessive bounty,
Do not tire, you tireless, of an disobedient man,

42. You appoint the hand of fate to rein in life,
And secrets are not safe with a gossip,

43. With you I strengthened my hands and steadied my party,
I fluttered my wings and sealed my wounds,

44. And my life's testing and people convinced me,
Through you so you decided my humiliation and contentment,

45. If I do not express the favour of your affliction
Through my gratitude, then blame me for my poor deed,

46. With every obedience the command of eloquence,
Released for it the flow of every splendid act,

47. It has in rhyme what your home has in sublimity,
A towering landmark no lofty can attain,

48. If poetry was bare it clothed it against its chill
In every fine silk and brocade,

49. I extended through it a hand so skilled
As if brandishing a sword in passionate fury,

50. Above each day of charming beauty a charm
With no repetition or pedantry,

51. Gifts to you my soul with a lavish soul
And miserly with it among people a withholding miser,