1. If it were not for the love of your beautiful abode
I would not have said “Long live this house!” nor watered it

2. Nor would my eyes have sent their glances with the night to gaze upon it
To quench the heat of my passion - from where did they shine!

3. My friend, the claim of love is a spacious door
But I see the door of true friendship is narrow

4. Did you not see, that day when the weather was clear but I was blind
Why then were my tears flowing as your tears dripped?

5. You escaped while in the fetters of love you have a companion
Could you really do without him once you walked away free?

6. Ask the neighbors whether the lover said farewell
And whether after parting there is still a meeting place

7. Where are the tender gazelles who used to cling
To the branches, joyful and softly bleating?

8. The day we parted at Suwayqah I swore by the religion of love
A desperate oath - so it would be believed!

9. When the carrier of messages shot the arrows of his glance
To kill with those eyes or make them shine

10. It was as if my heart at the call of the camel driver
Melted in weakness - would it burst in throbbing?

11. A skin the years wore out but hands could not find
In it any blemish for all their mending

12. And when he protected himself from the arrows of slander with patience
The slanderer still wounded him wherever he took cover

13. May God protect a life if the agony of passion protects it
Otherwise its purity would be troubled and tainted after me

14. Many a night, while traveling with a stranger, my vision
Could find no pleasure in him, so I startled him and he awoke

15. I held him close for a moment, lovingly
Then when I noticed his unease, released him gently

16. When I turned him back, I set him free
To the first hunter who avoids and misses his prey

17. And I know if my youth were a shield there
He would end the day bound tight in my ropes

18. Oh, if only the darkness of my night would pass
Who will bring back for me that darkness to shroud me?

19. All night, while you reclined between my arms, a painful sting
Reminded me of you - nothing eased its bite but thoughts of you

20. The nature of time is but to do evil
Good one day, the next in disguise and hypocrisy

21. I would blame it if blame could help
But who can mend the threadbare cloak of time?

22. ‘Udhra’s sister wondered, when she saw
My hopes hanging by a thread in the world

23. She had known me to always reach my goals
Breaking free if they touched my love, slipping from their grasp

24. And she said: When had you become so weak
When you always gathered us in your arms?

25. I said: To you - I never sank down just to gain them
In me is an aspiration to rise above their grasp

26. One cannot eat every day what his hands attained
Drink only what his efforts drew from the well

27. I now envy those who have never felt
Misfortune - while I endure grief and choking bitterness

28. I was worn down by critics gnawing the flesh of their brother
As he slept - never knowing hunger while I was torn to shreds

29. When a wave of favor flowed from me
They called it barren and filched it stealthily

30. They threw stones at me when they themselves were
Vile, lowly creatures - while I was of noble deeds

31. They sharpened their claws but I did not milk them
Nor take meat except what I found slaughtered

32. A crime of ignorance the forbearing overlooked
Never fearing that forbearance itself could destroy

33. When I saw that pardon did not win them
And reproach - I made reproach a separation

34. I discarded them like water skins that leaked
When filled, soaking whatever was around them

35. If by giving up in despair I shake my hands free of them
And begin each day in a life of misery

36. Still, from my Lord I have a gift of favor
That turns back my youth and brightens my life

37. People are either water of generous wine, sparkling
With which I am laden, or troubled bitter water

38. As if the morning breeze had dragged its hem
Upon him, while musk burst out from it, scattered

39. A crescent-shaped Hilali - the page of his face
When it appears leaves no east for the sun to rise from

40. You see beauty itself there, perplexed
While the water of shame flows above it, shimmering

41. By night, the hand of his charity - if it passed
Over barren rocks of Salma, would bring flowing rivers

42. He sees wealth as a burden piled on necks
So he parts it until he sees it spread far

43. Of that band who revive the land that had shriveled into drought
With the flowing water of munificence when the year is aflame

44. An oasis - you meet them at their watering place
Whether you fear loss or are lead astray, at a loss

45. Tall pillars - the fragrance of their land spreads
They live honored until war strikes with its hammer

46. When a guest nears their homes they compete
To host him, rich and destitute equal before him

47. They defended their glory with the swords they unsheathe
And the cultured tongue against the tongues that mock

48. A young man of them you will find gentle, but if simple
He confounds opponents, humbling and confounding them

49. When heroes unleash the thorns of war
And charge barefoot - then rush back

50. For every young man you see the sword gives no shelter
Nor death when championing the sanctity of his kinsman

51. When he takes his stance, leveling his spear
Until its point touches the ground, towering high

52. The battle maidens’ hands twist around him when he appears
Will he bare steel or offer his forehead, kneeling in homage?

53. His face tells of him before his words
Like the sun’s first rays that then shine radiant

54. He flashes his teeth like an unsheathed sword
When souls thirst for blood and desire to taste it

55. For them are reeds of glory I pray kneeling upon
Even if they pass by you hastily first

56. How little it diminished a starry night
If its stars scattered and did not revolve around the moon!

57. To you belongs glory - the eyebrow of the sun curves below it
In awe of your firmness that finds no ascent

58. The star Canopus - if invited to join it
Called or named an annex, would be enabled to ascend

59. There Ishmael and his clan attained a rank
The full moon wished it could ascend to

60. When the council of nobles meets, I count them
Father by father until I count the rightly-guided

61. Your father who surpassed kings in judgment
They deferred to him, gentle with all he desired

62. He reached them while evil lurched toward them
And therein stayed harm, unlike the strangler

63. He called them while spear tips prodded them
To meet him - and he honored those who met with him

64. He spread them dead and saved by his spear
Their familiar life of ease from the claws of misery

65. For him one sword bloodied from their blood
And another protecting his own from being torn to shreds

66. His sword protected the frontier between two powers
Blanketing the land of injustice with justice absolute

67. He left no place above the earth for fear
No wings for injustice to spread and fly

68. And he did not die until he saw life brought low
Bearing injustice though it destroys the free man

69. And when fate wanted to cripple his glorious hand
Of honor, he chose the sword and clasped

70. So you ransomed the noblest of peers - a severed branch
Neither long-standing nor in glory do you have a match

71. When the racecourse wraps around you on the day of ‘arīkah
With your victory, it turns asking the earth for a burrow

72. Before your steely eyes your black heart sees
An enemy in the bluest of your spear’s channels

73. I pour you from a heart that loved you sincerely
If love can be sincere and not mere flattery

74. You were described to me before we met, rending my heart
But when we met, your nobility healed the rending of the meeting

75. You became someone whose people honor him uniquely
Decreed by fate to be loyal to them, true

76. So he visited you, choice first fruits
Of virtuous gifts, guarded and refined

77. Too dear for the ignoble to casually pluck
Even if he brought high bridal gifts and dowries

78. And when I turned away all who desired her
Not allowing any rakish climber near her

79. Good tidings came to me that you had asked for her hand
I could barely, in my joy, believe the good news true

80. And it made me more certain of you that you are peerless
When you choose, you are the knowing, graceful one

81. The noblest soul, lofty of purpose
Yearns through the night for her like

82. Observe a father who guarded her with no match but you
However he probed and selected

83. If you name me her suitor, beginning with her proposal
She will reap from it lasting glory and elegance

84. Like the pearl of a diver - his fortune
Led him to it so he plunged as deep as he could reach

85. And brought it up pure white - his palm eclipsed
Radiant, you see the face of wealth shine through it

86. Yet people have corrupted speech, so you see no one
Speaks truth, for all who claim to speak it

87. I see the Feast and Nayrūz have come to grant
A respite from events regarding you, and security

88. So begin the joy of life anew with that
Following in this the exemplary tradition

89. Give and take - spend your time wisely
Shine and celebrate, sacrificing and joyful

90. For if the days could speak most eloquently
Of your fine qualities and glory...!