1. I am weary, care not for my harm or benefit
We ask grief about the darkness of grief

2. You said, the abodes speak not, and days gone by
For you, night is not long in hearing, so it tends

3. It is for me to ask, no shame to ask
If songs begrudge my return

4. I was not the first man who longed, still young
For the abode of loved ones or turned my cheek

5. My heart is torn by weeping, bleeding
On all fours from the strikes of destiny

6. Is there one who responds, gathering my scattered tent
Or trusted friend to carry my heavy concerns without complaint

7. And remembering him, his preserved name flows
From his people's pact, and tending pasture

8. So relieve me with a breeze from his youth
Long has the hot wind blown, lifting me

9. That breeze blows on a land, its expanse in the wind
Scattered by the hand of a gentle traveller

10. Tents folded over every full moon
The most beautiful between five and nine

11. In your narrowness and permitted ravaging of my love
O my friends, you robbed me and caused me anguish

12. Sing to me of Saad's mother, and my heart
Is with her, for today my heart will hear

13. Turn from me the blame, for it is not
You who transfer to me the nature of my making

14. She asked about me, how do I stay and has he slept
After leaving me, disconnecting, and severing

15. It was said he cries in the ruins, she said: What are ruins to me
If I do not see the dust of the ruins turn dry

16. My heart sank, so my eyelids poured forth in the abode
And my blood was made licit by the shedding of my tears

17. How much of Najd, if only Najd's people kept faith
Would have restored my heart from a mountain pass or crack

18. And sigh I taught the dove of the sands
What it knew not of yearning and lament

19. Nights in which I took pleasure in imaginings
And touches of light, from those meager meals

20. How destiny mocked in the cheating of my fortune
Neglecting my intimacy, dividing my assembly

21. Every day brings adversities, clutching
My banners either frontally or from the side

22. I bear tyranny gracefully until
The rend expands, beyond the sewing of patches

23. The people shunned the way of generosity until
They submit not to magnanimity nor its canon

24. So they are equal, though Ahmad tread
The path of verse or insult and abuse

25. Bestowing became token, though much
Was gained, until I mastered the taste of prevention

26. I ask the misers, and Allah is more worthy
Of the benevolent feat and goodly making

27. And in the manner of heights, after a people
Whose abundance in them stretched widely my arm

28. They defend me, though no shield defends me
Like my sword, and no armor shields me

29. They stood in awe, shaking the world away from me
Though to prey it pounces like a crouching lion

30. I swear by the carved out gifts, the guidance
Of one gone astray, or closeness of a spring

31. Every smooth plain the travel folded
Returns pricked as the hedgehog pricked

32. It knelt under his saddle, yesterday lofty like a trunk
It shook off in Babylon and Mina thirty nights in seven

33. Nights and days go on, no difference
Between rising and setting, gathering and dispersing

34. As spots on Abu Qubays appear to me
Like doves upon the hilltops and treetops

35. They carried the burdens of sins and fulfilled them
In decades, after decades, in the seven and the seventh

36. My friend from Bani Muzarra delivered me and blessed my planting and watered my crop
Prepared in the morning and prepared

37. In defense, wearing out the time of resistance
Whenever their sheaths shake

38. They draw them out, intent, at every rising
They carried suns above them and guided them

39. So they came from darkness into pieces
The bite of hornets washes their disgrace

40. If they care about disgrace and bite
And if the sweat of a lost camel flows among them

41. The origin ignites its fire into the branches
They wore cloaks humbly and so rent

42. With stars of heights, the darkness of cloaks
With noses atop kerchiefs that perceive scents

43. And necks under turbans that twist
Every seeker takes after his father in manner

44. And aspires to heights, striving
They tread the path of perfection interwoven

45. Like threading beads along holes in a necklace
Watering settlements, though the year desiccated

46. And their arms stretched among them like hyenas
With pure camels, milky when milked

47. Into the bucket bleating at the teat
And when virgins became too burdened for them

48. They fed not their bars with fodder
So I departed them, carried on adversity

49. My stout heart that long calling does not emaciate
I came to you desirous, distracted from all people

50. So my shepherd and satiation were you
The rope of the well-mannered has connected me

51. Like fortunate stars never severed
Her charms called me to his love turning me

52. From others and preventing my return
With the unique and wondrous among them, unmatched by you

53. In an excellence not originated
The people envied and abandoned me

54. Preferring to hear my speech in silence and amputation
But for you are hits of enemies bleeding

55. Before pulled out by hands of fate
Every female gazelle in mentioning you

56. In the land, by the tongues of transmitters
Walking on the lowlands without losing pace

57. Or being held back at pools an hour of water-drawing
Traversing land by mares, and sea by ships

58. Whose planks the traits of your glory composed in hearing
Like the Virgin's threading of her necklace of farewell

59. From your loftiness I adopted jewelry for my molding
Seeking aid and choosing a unique pearl for my stringing

60. So listen to what none before or after you
With such speech has encountered, of hearing

61. The Nile brought you an untouched virgin
Who wed none but you, ever, in deflowering

62. Though beside your worth, still I multiplied
So excuse my falling short and accept my capacity