1. I was content, though no obedience was from one content,
Loyal to a betrayer, and loving one who hates.

2. And I returned to my heart to conceal patience after it,
But I did not see anything but what comes to one who turns away.

3. There is restraint, but if I had found its reward,
And affection, but from it I did not gain any compensation.

4. Were you in the deserts of Al-Abiriq distracting me
With your coquetry from pouring out passion, or inciting me?

5. The eve whose whispering cannot be hidden by one enduring,
Nor can the eyelids contain the tears of one who stifles weeping.

6. While you wish me well with tears I heard of,
Which was nothing but talk of one who pretends sickness.

7. Indeed, the heart of a noble steed that its reins have made fly
With a flashing lightning in the darkness of night at Dajlah.

8. It has from the drizzle of clouds a calming forehead,
And in the fluttering of the wind the outflowing of a torrent.

9. It shone while my day in Al-Jazirah was dark,
Reminding me of Babylon and its night.

10. And a beautiful woman who did not hope for the return of an absent one,
So she pastured, and did not intend the decree for a creditor.

11. She has a house in Al-Ghor between erected
And spread out carpets disciplined.

12. I confined there seeking life for my killers,
Out of love, and praying for recovery for the sick.

13. And when we stopped, and some time remained
In the extent of stopping an hour, then it would pass.

14. She saw some gray hairs that peeked through my temples,
So she was frank in shunning as did every turner away.

15. And she said, "you've grown old." I said, "A mature man." And she fell silent.
And she said, "Before the arrow is warning of one who bends his bow."

16. My heart and my sight solicit you after gray hair,
And from where can the blackness be pure for the white?

17. Oh, the days when my sword hand was paralyzed,
And my silence in the jewelry of theobedient bridle.

18. The nights whose day has shortened its life-
Ask the permanence of night from one who does not sleep.

19. You were my wings but then you were folded after you left,
So do I, when I fly, have any limbs left?

20. Shall I run seeking a substitute for you in the lands?
For long has been my circling, so my stumbling increased.

21. Rather, a warrior from the family of Ayyub called to me
Gray-haired, and the dark closed in after you, so disperse it!

22. My soul pastured on arid terrain before his love,
So when he was gentle to me, I said, “Be more acidic!”

23. Abu Talib, and it is thought you will intercede
For her without need for a prompt or an inciter.

24. A beloved whose heart is filled with promises
Spoke of an illness that lingers from procrastination.

25. Wealthy through putting off wishes, the ties
Of his patience were cut between coming and departing.

26. You descended upon me in fasting for the feast of breaking fast
When the day of sacrifice had passed with him still needing.

27. Would you be pleased that others enjoy your love
While I am pleased with a sip of one who pretends disinterest?

28. Perhaps you have intended, by your graciousness
To me and my knowledge of you, my imposition.

29. So do not think it humiliation, for no cowardice
Appeared to you from the fang of a courageous biter.

30. And another attributes his fate to his sin
When it is said “you were negligent” he says “so it was decreed.”

31. Listen to her, you did not fulfill your gratitude fully,
And even if you had, I would not have been pleased with gratitude.

32. A beautiful face, missing the garments of riches,
And if you clothe it, the garb of one who turns away suits it.

33. And in the heart is what the mouth cannot express,
And prose conveys it less than the anxiety that rends me.

34. So excuse me, and congratulations on my elation, for it
Is hard for what I'm accustomed to, the excess of my composure.

35. And I have taken from the days what fulfilled its luckiest
With good - you will find whatever you want of them, so take and refuse.

36. The world is led to you with a submissive back,
When it distributes sustenance with the tossing of a well-fed camel.