1. We yearn yet hearts turn harsh with estrangement
We ask the dwellers of the meadows yet return disappointed

2. Faces illuminate our ardor yet our hearts remain enflamed
Some faces comfort love itself yet itself remains withdrawn

3. We gathered yet our binding link had throbbing heart
Innocent was he, with comfort untied, fearful

4. We were tossed between hands of protective zeal and passion
We refuse overwhelming longing then respond

5. We feign to lovely glances hiding our hearts
And the sandy wastes meet well the arrows’ drive

6. When the archer misses he takes what he sees
A feeding ground for game and raking fortune in

7. He had his fill of blood he took by right
While intentions hovered that the folk had shunned

8. Beyond the burial cloth naught stays but traces
Of a soul soliloquizing, moaning mournfully

9. At night, you're gladdened by its brocade figures
Sweet is their semblance, fragrant is their scent

10. Captivated, the one it lured starts the night's pleading
Partaking the drinks it proffers while your lids seem cups

11. God protect the eye whose gaze lights up an eye
That would dry up the udder of a heavily pregnant camel

12. When I said the lightning spent spray of the clouds
It passed as the lightning passes when it dips

13. It wept as the horses’ drinking pool ran dry
Leaving slim mounts the next day circling with worry

14. My eyes had not been spared nor the brine of tears
And tears of two sobbing ones make for heady drink

15. On the night of the full moon I stayed up gazing
At a star exempt from setting upon the horizon

16. I ask about my sleep and the dawn's ablution
Wearied am I - which of the absent ones will return?

17. The valley's winding path meandered to meet me and my friends
Sprawled over the sticks and twigs feeling depressed

18. They tethered themselves to an anchorage short of life
Merely a shudder ere the winds blast through

19. To the winds belong their eyes and hearing
To the soil belong their limbs and sides

20. It came to visit so I greeted it clasping his heart
From ardor he suffers greatly and pulls away

21. To spend what was left of the night had we taken
Precautions against suspicions that spoil its purity

22. Fears’ warnings bid me rise for dawn is nearing
As darkness called at morn, so near you are to me

23. Unaware I was that nearness is a wakeful eye
Keeping watch over me - or that union stands guard

24. What frightens me are the biting years, and my shoulders
Show a prone aged man the years haul toward his death

25. I lived them without yielding to their disasters
How could I when life itself is full of frights?

26. How many a wink has pierced my flank and I said naught,
My injury feigned even if my want was keen

27. It dug in claws and blame yet in the end pulled off
As the stubborn spring flowed leaving me erect

28. Shall I seek its cover fearful when my sanctuary
Stands impervious, a minister's refuge wide?

29. Before me when harm heads my way is a horseman ready
To bloody his horse's hooves and presumably flee

30. For every stretched‐out hand the harvest is fulfilling
Beyond his reach a barrier and shameful want

31. Fortune should have protected me from days
Where my youth remains untouched by age

32. Honor of faith tended glory in my care
No wind disturbing my head stall's flank

33. Seek glory and fortune's heights, seeker of greatness
Venture there, for the venturesome is ever noble

34. Turn hilltops to roads open for her crossing
To roam the dark nights wherever darkness roams

35. March on with her - the fortunes favor one who comes
No shrinking back for fate itself frowns down

36. Keep her protected in clan Beni Abdelraheem
Where shelter she finds if aught went wrong

37. Sing her glories to their hearing if she pipes up
Eager is the flute when the lute begins to trill

38. For in their care lies a heart just like your heart, Majid
And hearing tuned to songs of honorable men

39. Seek out Tigris’ high banks, there build your abode
Where life is sweet though meager were its gifts

40. Join with her Branch Dejail for there lies your wish
Quenching the thirst when water skins run dry

41. And say: Chief Minister, hear - embodied there feats -
Puzzle them out and you shall know adversity

42. You glimpsed wonders of the valor in their breasts
While aspects of the brilliant remain veiled

43. You cured her with opinions till you saved her rightly
Not every judgment made by men brings healing

44. You hastened solutions for what came before
While commanding destiny stays plain, with consequence

45. You acted sincerely as camphor, dazzling forth,
As men proclaimed “hastened hothead” wrongfully

46. “Could patience bring more prudence to this hurried man
When children frolic with grave dangers looming?”

47. They never knew that arrows ride like steeds
Nor that strides of lions come as pounding storms

48. You stayed awake while sweet of slumber slept from what you saw
You won and wakeful eyes of enemies blinked shut

49. As though for you this day's delight were yours
While yearning souls call down black fate greedily

50. And they proclaimed: “He left Baghdad in hate and gloom”
But Baghdad is the life‐spring bursting green

51. They thought when you left that the heart you spurned
Would heal if you kept your distance steadily

52. While bodies may be shunned, affection dwells within
As often homes are left while still beloved

53. What else could reign be but a radiant paradise?
When you departed, only shadows barren streets

54. How could it turn a lifeless victim now
Bereft of either foe blood or songstresses?

55. It wept abandonment while being callous itself
Can burning wounds belong to ones who abandoned first?

56. You were the smiling face, so give it happy tidings
Scowling you left, while sadness settled through the homes

57. It shows remorse, shame bites while regrets cause pain
Leaving their marks from chest wounds unresolved

58. To Majid whose breast hides the moon of dew night darkness
Content, while his anger yet stokes up its flames

59. Lips are kissed granting rest from echoings
As the flute learned of it how arrows hit their mark

60. It alighted in the dew until its strains took root
The noble vein always rising from the sea

61. A hand the pens all marvel at the intimacy
Shown by his sword - though stranger midst their throng

62. If they dispute it steps back saying
“We have precedence, accept it and be still”

63. But limits determined forbid retreat
As pens make way before it trying to compensate

64. Coy glances come and go between it and them
With a horseman‐judge and orator deciding shares

65. It grants the pens an allotted portion fairly
And for the sword, its equal portion too

66. They claimed the Grand Hajj leader was impaired
And the lords of glory were grayed

67. To the utmost you respond when you welcome them, still growing
You were a boy yet people's affairs rest on you

68. Its branches drank then flourished and branched out
Upon the staff though it began a meager stick

69. You need not wear the ministerial raiment now
Since time has clothed you in them - yet they are a shame

70. Some people donned them who were not created for them
They disgraced it when baseness and force had coerced

71. It came to you so propriety entered its name
While midst others both discord and wars erupted

72. Its orbits and theirs no longer intersect
While you remain their kin, drawing ever closer to them

73. The House of Ishmael remains still bound to them
Nor are Beni Abdelraheem estranged from them

74. If one long dead from loathing them rose up
Or a branded slave looked on suspiciously

75. Some eyes would glimmer, or some resting place delight
That you are their inheritance, and progeny

76. For then they would behold what the eye cannot see
With all the stars above when suns go down

77. You unfurled pride whose legends time immortalizes
As eras give birth though beginnings all look frail

78. If harm spreads or enmity smolders to unjust ends
God will protect you, and suffice as judge

79. While their gentle intimacy's murmurs in darkness
Creep toward you all with soft rustling in the night

80. It lasted only an instant, then seasons wiped it out
Time, considering it a sin, thereafter sought repentance

81. Favor must have days of return against its will
As eyes atone when they alight with pain

82. How I’ve been threatened by voices loud in enmity
Stormily promising harm in time to come

83. Strong in injustice with your sword as enemy
My covenant with them was yesterday, now voided

84. Thinking - far from you - my shameful acts were exposed
And I was seized while destiny remains unjust

85. That after you, my trenches will be flooded
By enemies triumphant, gloating, exultant

86. Unknowing that even Sham itself blocking your way
I would wear down to keep you

87. I said: be it your grave lot or the rocky cairn
Gone at dusk yet lions return by dawn

88. Tomorrow banners rise as victory dwells beneath them
Turning ranks in fortunes as triumphant troops return

89. You view glory unfurled on their edges, brave steeds fluttering,
Happy for victories gained while you are saddened still

90. You view glory unfurled on their edges, brave steeds fluttering,
Happy for victories gained while you are saddened still

91. Baghdad is free, her face begins to smile again
While sovereignty returns after its dormancy

92. Signs for me in situations much like these
I believe though time itself is the deceiver

93. Tried in you as if their eyes could see
Behind the screens veiling the unseen

94. Birds pass, swooping down whene'er I glimpse
A site for me though absent at the time

95. I adjure you by God - speak: how you saw its terrain
As giants terrorize when losing out

96. Say “Yes! Success met you!” Watch over its bridle
Tomorrow, and tomorrow is near for viewers waiting

97. Through you O clan Beni Abdelkarim bitterness is cleansed
Barren plains now fruitful after desolation

98. When my lands grew arid and water supplies blocked
In you lies a meadow for me, and heart’s ease

99. When love in jest I saw as lifetime law
I loved you while all lovers have some lack

100. Who asks of you beyond what he deserves
My right remains a debt that can't be doubted

101. When clouds of your shade did not stint from me
At times they pour and sometimes generously spray

102. When blessings meant for you were never absent
And this world was one whose life seemed sweet

103. The New Year's comes to you when dawn first stirs
Though on Time’s head white hairs begin to show

104. Branches of sweet basil bloom while your branch thrives
With happiness the blossoming sprigs soak up

105. A thousand of the faithful pray blessing me
In complete concordance of tongue and soul