1. I visited Karkh and stayed awhile in its taverns
And asked how it was bereft of its revelers

2. I knew it when it was filled with its masters
And all the friends were in its clubs

3. I knew it surrounded by all luxury
And the group was together and luck was constant

4. Light and brilliance shone in its corners
And flowers and myrtle wandered in its regions

5. The morning breeze had bowers where souls revived
With the fragrance from its winds covering the earth

6. And birds above the roots of the trees were singing
And branches bent with fruit in their bending

7. Why did its friends go and its traces fade
And its heights crumble and fall away from it

8. I yearn for its west side all together
For its east cannot be a match healing me

9. By God, stand in my stead within it like a drinker
And it has not ceased watering from the call of parting

10. Stand my stand in it in the dawn of departure
Where carnelian runs down the cheeks I made it flow