1. The horses roamed as they pleased, and it rained
Thick greens and pouring showers

2. And a laughing pasture, a shining plain
Where spring sang its song before dawn

3. And remnants of singers who praised
Their life on the ancient ruins

4. So let its calves and its calves’ calves graze
And take from this fresh growth and leave some

5. So much purpose is it pastured for! How much
Is seen held back by the cows returning at dusk.

6. Does it not gather in slopes for them
Strewn by the horses all along the road?

7. By God, they are the roads of loftiness,
And the means for good and for evil

8. Their backs are glory, and in their bellies
Treasure for the night raiders stored

9. Yes, our hopes have stretched it long
And the time has come for patience to bear fruit

10. So, the gorge! O rider of gorges! The gorge, then!
If the guide was truthful in this news—

11. Smooth or rough return, or complete
The return, the completeness, and side exposed!

12. And if you yearned for the camp, and its pasture
There is, in the substitute, water and other meadows

13. Will we find anywhere but a borrowed house
And a home in another where exile is spent?

14. And a desire hidden between awe and yearning
If its lightning should spark in the breast lit?

15. O my religion of heart from early Najdi youth
That flows with the winds of evening and dawn!

16. If I forget or neglect, sins will be
Committed against me through forgetfulness of remembrance

17. Oh for those white faces
Upon which red dots in those lovely cheeks darken

18. Whenever a heart that drinks of memories sings by me
If it gets intoxicated with recollection

19. We were, and she was, and the nights were dewy
With our connection, and time accepts no change

20. Days my hands cannot resist
Nor any prince be obeyed if he commands

21. My ally is the affection of her eyes,
My sin to her is what of this poetry exists

22. If she turned away heedless of it
When the goodbyes have made them teary

23. I had not imagined that, before it,
The Derar would forget the gloomy, murky night

24. They said you approached her, refusing
To speak, deterred from sin, prevented

25. They order me to return her dignity
The sale of consent, and regret for whoever loses

26. I went around between the houses, paying visits
Concealing myself without guards

27. Bearing from her a little conversation
That yesterday was the basil of life

28. Oh how the days have shortened! Tightened is
What used to be long in my throat and in time’s breaking

29. A staff’s splinters, and tiresome old age
And a cracked house, and treacherous loved ones

30. And a companion who is like an illness: if I let him be
He corrupts, and if captured, he kills

31. I carry him like carrying thorns, a loss
And shortage—no increase even if multiplied

32. Hypocrisy dresses him for me in a fine garb
Beneath which is a tiger’s skin

33. Smiling, while evil is in his mind,
See however you wish a villain when he bares his teeth

34. I will make people avoid my back as
A mounted and outcast camel makes streams pour

35. Alone my slogan—no contact between them and me
The lion in isolation, and so the moon

36. I satisfy myself, my beloved and brother,
And perhaps the life of this world entertains for an hour

37. If there is despair, perhaps an absent one
Will appear, as fire lies hidden in the stones

38. Good tidings have told me of a generous gift
The southern winds have not stirred its like before

39. It says to me in its highest voice in the morning
And with the gentle, sweet, fragrant breeze

40. That the young man of Maysan, by his house
Glory alone remains, and dust

41. He who recognizes what people have denied
Of virtue, and revives what has worn out in high ground,

42. And that his fame flows with bounty
When my name was mentioned and repeated

43. And an energetic woman clings
To his heart, thoughts of reflection past

44. So who is the rider of the red hill,
Silent of back, with a hollow belly?

45. Raise its trailing robe, lower its chest
Looming over the rider, and fleet of palace

46. Four lively ones race it,
Four others swerve from it

47. When the horses disappear into the dark of night,
Its Lord is from the east, wary

48. He counts the constellations of the sky as necks
At such elevation and descent

49. He holds back the wave's surge for it when
The quality of the leg falters in crossing the torrents

50. Had he not gently helped it over its stumbling
With a cunning trick, it would not have walked

51. Submit and walk—there is nothing but peace
For one who travels on an errand like mine

52. Say to Abu l-Qasim—O most generous one
To whom a degree of glory lowered and rose!

53. And better than one whose lids filled with yearning
In praise of him but did not lose sleep

54. Son of one about whom it was said: if he turns
Away from life, it will turn after him to follow

55. Kings cherished his gifts
And caliphs that he did not value or consider

56. Who else could the world covet
That he inhabited it, and steeds of leaders of mankind?

57. If only the son of Jesus were your sole
Source of pride, it would suffice the tongue of the boastful!

58. You grasped his path, O noble ones,
And threw away from yourselves those tales

59. And you took his place after him
As the sun whose place its rays fill

60. Pure is your clay, steel your
Resolute spirit, good their stones and abundant

61. They do not slip into baseness for
Their neighbor, or import wine

62. Every youth is risking himself
With the sublime, if it appears or presents itself,

63. Either the leader of a battalion who hurls them
Into the pits of injustice until he gains victory,

64. A daring adventurer unleashed with his sword
Against evil, halfway through fate,

65. Or one who abandons the excellence of his
Religion by which he fortified and conquered his realm

66. He eschewed worldliness after it had adorned itself,
Made itself available, and he had assumed command of it

67. A ruler among people, judging them
By the definitive verses and clear chapters.

68. So you are all either heir of a present honor
Through his precedence, or heir of stored honor

69. It suffices as testimony of Qasim
That the glory of Abu l-Qasim is clear in its vestiges—

70. It has related about him such as foliage narrates
About the generosity of branches, sweet of fruit

71. Gifts from God have fulfilled
What was hoped for you and perfected

72. O you who fulfilled my request with friendship
Offering wine, marking me with rain

73. And who brought me down from the balconies of your views
To a place the meteors descent and crash!

74. My hearing was absent from you, for my heart was present
It is custom for the generous that returns to me

75. What had died in you, and is brought back to life
How many wounds in me you have joined

76. And how many broken parts you have set and healed!
You have taken captive my soul and passion—so judge

77. Between us, the owner of bondswomen did not give or loan!
I have kissed what the scribe’s hand wrote

78. In praise of you—like the kissers of stones
And said: “O object of my ardent desire, comfort!

79. And O my heart! Either you felt it and thus broke,
You at least were sincere, or you were chaste!’

80. And O my thirst! This is a law
To which the arriving water carriers call

81. If only I would cling to the wing of an ambition
That, infatuated with you, would carry me to you headlong

82. You would see—along with my great modesty—
My face appearing before you without prior news

83. But that is a sound judgment
That groans under the pressure of misfortunes and others

84. And a high determination prisoned
By the shackles of fate that do not unchain

85. Perhaps time will turn away from
Its stubbornness, or fate will pull up its stakes

86. If I stay, there will be couples that my departure
Will disturb eternally, and I never visited

87. Withheld if the steeds hesitate,
Not even bird or consulting omen deterred

88. Every riding has its head toward the range,
Not banning birds, without asking signs

89. Its day intermingled with its night,
The evenings hurling them into the dawns

90. Loading praise of you as merchandise
The absent evening through anything else trade

91. As if the south and north met it
The perfumes of Darin and harvests of Hijaz!

92. No mouth has ever passed on to ears
The likes of them, warned or able to soar aloft

93. The prime horses handed them over to me
Necessarily, although they did not handover willingly

94. Witness of one who loved you, and healing
Yet poison and patience toward your enemies

95. So you may know one who recognized the blessing in you
And gave thanks has been struck by your height

96. O you who lent me with kindness
An advance of wine, the rain marking me!

97. O you who brought me down from the towering views of your thoughts
To where meteors descend and crash!

98. My hearing missed you, for my heart was present
It is the habit of the generous that returns to me

99. What was lifeless in you, and revived
How many wounds in me you have joined