1. My days have become both an adversary and an intercessor for me
Thus time defies once and obeys another time

2. Thirst has overwhelmed me, else, I would not have wetted it
In every heart there is an obstruction and a leaning

3. And I am not of those who seek water for echo
And meeting place of all comers brings me together with them

4. My weaning from this life is death, while its suckling
Neither does the streaming breast satisfy the weaned

5. We refused but no harm befell our honor
And we have in the land a place to rest and a spring

6. If the coward's soul betrays its patience
Our arms, polished and armored, defend us

7. And a homestead in the desert sufficed us that it is no dwelling place
And what there is between the hands of doers is expansive

8. Shall I denounce to you that wealth brings dishonor to a young man?
Wealth is nothing but chastity and contentment

9. Does a firm resolution rise in me towards what I want?
And the confidant of my secret among men is a blabber

10. And my soul yearns for a state after a state
And I restrain it, for I am, when solitary, content

11. And I am tempted by the blowing wind when it flows
And I admire, in it, the alternation of lightning

12. And longing bows upon me, the misery of rain in Al-Hejaz and its lightning that flashes on the outskirts
And I know not ecstasy until a dove in the valley coos

13. And were it not for passion, I would have been nothing but a toiler
Who defies passion and obeys

14. When dawn shines, the steed is my companion
And when night comes, the sword is my bedmate

15. I left the nights behind me hated
And the overwhelming swarms of insects accompanied me

16. I ventured fascinated by what I seek
I traverse the darkness while the seekers are asleep

17. Be informed that a spear whose attack is not piercing is useless
And a sword that does not strike violently is blunt

18. And I left behind me men from Qais and Khindif
Without my chest provoking them to war

19. I left them calling while my tears were streaming
But my eyes did not allow them to shed tears on me

20. A farewell heart cautioned them against me
And a resolute determination to meet the men head-on

21. And a soul free in confronting catastrophes
And a heart obedient in the war of time

22. And I said: Accepting oppression is the greatest fault
And the free man in the land is not lost

23. So when I saw humiliation among the people was common
I left and no return was possible to me

24. Lo, my night in Iraq is as if
It is an emaciated camel avoided by men

25. Resident who brings me worries and my watcher
Is preoccupied with the backs of the stars and burning

26. And horse(s) whose purity we shattered in the darkness of night
Their hooves make the pebbles quiver and frightened

27. Until dawn rises and the night departs dejectedly
Abandoning its horrors, and the planets are gazing

28. And by God I survived a day in Iraq
Though the hands of death were about to fall

29. I slipped away from it, slipped like a smooth pocket
And it bent inside the pockets of oath-breakers

30. Mouths vie over it, in every arena
And every tradition in which I was the innovator

31. We tasted it, and we let our spears drink from its blood
And hopes of men were cloven by its gaping wounds

32. And our hands conceal the bases of our spears
While their tips roam between hearts

33. My greed is to own all the glory
And every boy aspires to the heights

34. And a friend who hands me cups as a courtesy
And he wished the mint were copious

35. I hid in my ribs a deadly assault for him
On the day of traitors, it will startle him

36. Since no day lasts whose loyalty endures
Then loyalty in time is a wonder

37. Some sayings of speakers are falsified
And some visitors of relatives are deceivers

38. I see a guided one listening while none is speaking
And one seeking guidance calling while none can hear

39. People are nothing but a pretentious eulogizer
And another, the train of whose cloak is vile

40. Time is naught but blessings and tribulations
And creatures are naught but secure and terrified

41. The day of soft steps, hand-clapping
And the speech of creaky sandals braying

42. It astonished me — it moves with us while standing still
It eats from our lifetimes and is ravenous

43. Which man of Saʿd's offspring did I befriend
That did not debase those roots with branches?

44. Lightweight on the back of the noble that shakes him
Poems on his shoulders and short poetry

45. When one day is obscured, his honor's face rises
And for us the full moon has setting and rising

46. I will pounce from the night of disorder and escape
To an abode where time is submissive

47. I see the stallion whose lips the bridle has chafed
And without him is the rugged, firm ground

48. When crisis seizes him, deliverance takes him
And the legs of the steed bound forth

49. As for us, when the whips wave boastfully
We bow down on its withers and kneel

50. I do not accept satisfaction from time
And my resolve is taken while time is prevented

51. In life, the suckling of the udder is speckled
And on earth, the pasturing plain is verdant