1. Who will inform me with questions and oaths
Of the abode of knowledge and its aims

2. A fresh spring that washes away sorrows
Completely from the heart, though unhealed

3. Alas! Najd and those who speak of it
Few asked, though toil of asking burdens nations

4. Naught remains but a breath of breeze for you
Or a smiling flash of lightning in the wilderness

5. And deceptions, weakness seducing you
With lies of dreams in the night

6. Furtively visiting remnants of residue
Fearing the guile of lurkers in bait

7. I slept the sleep of the wary, my companions
Despairing ones at my flanks, huddled

8. The night marched on, its shooting stars in
Regiments of its swift dark horses

9. So they visited, their visit brought near
By one familiar with the darkness, dignified

10. Who knew my journey from the riders, the refund
Of my misgivings, and the moaning of my illness

11. Then he drew near, pulling my sleeves, and
Fear twisting away from him, he said arise

12. Arise for me, else I would not risk danger
I said, and without your secret I'd not sleep

13. A respected one for the darkness, who gifted the
Morning winds with it, intercessor for the obscured

14. An adversary, with whom the lands in bounty
Become, with gifts of the priceless blood

15. He reformed until sorrow followed the plains
And leveled the uneven with the flat

16. The reins are slackened and the hour hand stops
From every attacker, every crawling worm

17. Delving into the earth, his water births
From it abdomens of the infertile dunes

18. You see settlements from him seeping
In robes of turbans of the incomplete

19. The meadows speak of him plainly
Best said, as the thankful say of blessings

20. As if God had never created an earth
More wondrous in making than his artistry

21. Its ruins toy with the terrain of the ribs
Smitten by the south wind and the hot breaths

22. Truly famine has taken its sweetest parts
Naught remains but its outlines for the painter

23. Distant from the grass of the land, and the plants
Of its fresh water sprouting slender leaves

24. Its desolate ghosts rise up for our needs
In grand entreaties and greatest hopes

25. Seeking from the Lord of the Two Sanctuaries rest
For the riders, and the warmth of villages atop the banners

26. And honor of the neighbor in Rabi'a and the house
Safety of the doves in sanctity of the inviolable

27. And the speaker, doer, who prepared generosity
From the Arabs through the bouquet of non-Arabs

28. The transgressors rebuked it with his name, so they
Repented without stubbornness or indignance

29. So leave them with healing drinks and rinsing
Then walk straight amongst them thereby and throw

30. For today Ghada valley is grazed, and tomorrow
Grazed through his gifts, the valley of generosity

31. They will not suffer narrowed straits of need
Nor ever a pillar of boredom

32. Not the short of garment, if pulled by
The famine, hems soaked in the mud pools

33. Smooth, no flaws clinging to him
Perfumes honor, purest of repute

34. Wrathful over the protective father's jealousy of him
In contentment the sweetest of sips

35. Either you see what he has perforce, so take
From him, or you asked, so commit to him

36. Coercion and kindness, gathering water and
Fire, cave of the polished old sword

37. He gave generously, so the blamers said enough, and he
Increased, so they said would that we did not blame

38. And they tasted the fruit, so he said to it
My patience and He who collects rubble

39. Stranger than the granter of provision, an enemy
Dividing provision, above suspicion

40. For God, glory, protection, determination
Sublime wishes, and greatest resolves

41. Whatever was endowed by my father, the most high gifts
That perfected the treasures of speech

42. Though an intractable foe obstructs the mouth with spittle
And babble against the speaking opponent

43. Repelling both flanks, vague of face
Over the inclusive and well-ordered

44. Too hard for speakers, though it submits to him
Between tongue and pen

45. It acts as the roar of lions in his pages
As if he writes it in their savageness, in blood

46. Virtues of its heritage and earnings
His by true chronology and antiquity

47. Oh son of the defenders of their rights
In the dawn and the feeders in darkness

48. And the strikers of enemies with their edges
And those reaching farthest with their ancestors

49. Your king walked the ages in ascent
And descent, towering over the pyramid

50. You were pleased with the best of nights before
And enjoyed the tales of nations

51. Your efforts made people righteous
And your kindness to them made them corrupt

52. The hands of kings tossed you, but no
Disgrace bruised your temples, no bond muzzled

53. The weak cried for you in war, so you were
Allies of their king

54. They took your opinion, so it guided them
Advice confused, correctness blind

55. So tumult does not shake you, nor
Does change of blessings enter you

56. The bracelets and crowns do not slip
Above your palms and the pyramid summits

57. I made you my kin, so never did
Disappointment rap its knuckles from regret

58. I became through your judgement, each lad
Among you, dutiful in loyalty

59. I bloodied heads of enemies with your glory
Their skulls bowed before my feet

60. You wrapped me in your cloak, so the veins
Of Abd al-Rahim pulsed in my womb

61. But distractions that bare, turning
From my right, excluding a relative from duties

62. And preoccupations, events, distracted
Your faces from my long-held rights

63. I met you in intimacy, then estrangement
Returned me in garments of dignity

64. Weariness, and the tombs are absent, and
Seclusion without stumbling or crime

65. And disdain, had I drank it in the vessel of water
My arteries would not heal from its chill

66. It was not softened by my deception in words
Or actions, though magic is in my hands and mouth

67. My sincere hopes in healing my state in you
Mocked the sickness, and glory is amazed by you

68. In wealth of power, and my poverty
What do I say, the seas foamed in your hands

69. The temperaments of time surely shifted
But my blame is on fortunes, and my doubt

70. To you the crooked dealing of fate
That I am in your prime

71. Yet it is my time, in a compressed state
I thought if days served your prosperity

72. It would be of my service
That your fires if rising

73. I'd be the first catching in my embers
That the world vanish while you

74. Kept your promise to me, neither ending nor collapsing
Let not that hope fade, nor

75. Be breached the privacies of those sanctums
I have debts deferred with you, they

76. Ate my flesh and drank my blood
So repay, for ability came, and lighten

77. Your back, debts are burdens
And seek with it the epitome of beauty

78. As is custom, not monetary epitome
And wear of celebrations an ample garment

79. In glory, its train upon the feet
Knit by fortune, however long and wide

80. In the lion pelts and fish remains
Tied with eternity, its embroidery

81. So the world cannot say to it “unravel”
And meet the fast with whitened cheeks, and flowing hair

82. Celebrate the supported, and fast