1. I closed my eyes to the tree of passion
So pour your shade on the soil, O cupbearer

2. And I cast off a cloak I had worn out
In the war of my sorrows against my longings

3. With the rock of patience I clothed myself with naught else
As I wandered the maze of horizons

4. No longer a baker of youth’s bread
The ships of joy signaled farewell

5. My lips dried up and my tongue coagulated
My words scattered from my papers

6. I grew weary of my voice calling out breathless
My homeland, my childhood palm trees, and my friends

7. And loves who passed through their orchards
As the horses of invaders made my depths barren

8. The murmur of a fountain, a brook’s laughter
The spray of a lantern, embers, and a poker

9. I feared for myself and so my heart’s fire
Burned the timbers of compassion

10. I grew addicted to losing since the dawn of my awareness
For the delusion of wishes is a kind of failing

11. They planted darkness in my brain, so my sun grew still
And my window shut to the dawn

12. Those who freed my doves from their cage
Strengthened the soil and water with chains

13. And so with Iraq’s liberation a feast
That gathered all the thieves of earth

14. What wonder if my heart betrayed its ribs?
For he who betrayed Iraq is an Iraqi!

15. He who cries for help from the dark with darker shadows
And from a swamp with more mud

16. So the struggle is an exposed flesh-trade
Whose stench blew through the market of hypocrisy

17. And ambition is purchased positions
Sought by crawling on hands and knees

18. And I saw the palm tree beating its fronds
Ashamed of those walking with ostrich necks

19. Is this Baghdad? The one I knew
Refused to compromise with an unworthy intruder

20. Refused to bargain over its honor
And gave its soul before money

21. It inherited the sword and resolve of its knights
And from al-Husayn the morals of dignity

22. Is this Baghdad, suckling those who eat its breast
Then, united with its foe in agreement...?

23. If only I had control over my heart, I would have
Hastened its infatuation with divorce

24. It tied its marriage contract to Iraq’s clay
So my dowry is my pounding heart and friends

25. I failed in my passion so was estranged
For estrangement is the utmost failing

26. For I saw you thirsty in your veins
Help my autumn with spring to bloom

27. And the roses of wishes in the garden of longing
Sweep out the darkness of sectarianism with light

28. And ready the lovers’ boat for the Tigris
So I can begin life anew, and not see

29. My homeland a victim with blood as its cupbearer
O my heart, is there one like you in passion

30. Complaining of the woes of estrangement and parting?
Are you not the one who fasted his youth in denial

31. Of the water of vines and the bread of embracing?
Of the sweetly smiling lips

32. And the softly raining eyes?
O you who wasted childhood and youth

33. What more will you lose if you waste what remains?
Is there aught in the jars of life but dregs?

34. Close your book! The time for reunion has passed!