1. When the valley was clothed in herbage green,
And the wanderer halted there, resting serene,

2. When the morning breeze softly blew,
Stirring the banners bright and blue,

3. May God deny you his cup so pure,
If you fulfil not your word so sure,

4. Many a seeker faint and worn with pain,
Seeking the aid he sought in vain,

5. I journeyed on through the darkened night,
The lightning gleaming wild and bright,

6. I heed not water though I lie,
Parched on the burning sands nearby,

7. I am like a frightened gazelle in flight,
Scared from the valley in its plight,

8. Though I have drunk my fill of many a stream,
That gives no solace to my dream,

9. With me comes a camel, scarred and scared,
Before a band of warriors prepared,

10. Noblest scion of the line of Hashim,
Best of all who tread earth's rim,

11. To you my camel turns her rein,
To ease my doubt and end my pain,

12. I leave the heedless to their plight,
Seeking water and food in my flight,

13. You surpassed even Moses and his seed,
By your grace and your noble deed,

14. A sure shield you are from war's alarm,
You, the soul of patience, calm and warm,

15. When with swelling tide the bosom overflows,
In the robe of night the ripening moment glows,

16. I call you while time halts in its flight,
Between my breath and the coming night,

17. For this I call the maids of the litter bright,
With heaving bosoms and shoulders white,

18. My soul you know can bravely wait,
Though the scale of fate be adverse to my state,

19. Had you expected time to fulfil its role,
You had clasped the hand black as coal,

20. Why should I not turn from a land,
Where rise high the souls that misunderstand,

21. Sustenance is not sure at Karakh's shore,
Nor at Baghdad is set fair fortune's store,

22. Wherever I wandered, east or west,
I found but envy, hate and unrest,

23. Seeking knowledge my spirit was fired,
And that is my joy when peers conspired,

24. If lovesick I were, I would feel unrest,
Fearing the glances that pierce my breast,

25. Where are the lovely maids that set me aflame?
I seek but the breeze that fans the flame,

26. Often awake I lie at night,
Between encampment and watchers' sight,

27. Seldom I rest through the darksome night,
Between the valiant horsemen's might,

28. If e'er by fate I am cast down,
I say not, would that death had claimed his own!

29. It matters not if my way I ply,
On a ship that breasts the billows high,

30. Or a swift camel with footsteps long,
Pacing the desert with tread so strong,

31. Free spirit finds scant room to thrive,
When fate projects its shadow contrive,

32. With their tongues men their safety buy,
No man controls his destiny,

33. They spoke words which I don't resent,
Of fate's web we each are a strand.

34. Wrong and justice both expend,
From the Lord of present and days long spent,

35. I said I and all humanity, stand
Upon a promise and His command.

36. If my Islam is as I profess,
Every ill is light, I acquiesce,

37. Never will I envy one of might,
Though he grasp all that eludes my sight,