1. The dream of the future and the memory of the past
The theater of poetry and the poet's world

2. Yesterday's memories allure him as
The abandoned is charmed by the ghost of the emigrant

3. And the hoped-for tomorrow in his longing
Is an image of every splendid beauty

4. An image like the promise from the sweetest mouth
Like the smiles of the fragrant reunion

5. And like the eyes of a little girl glancing
At the lashes of a lazy-eyed little boy

6. The poet's world is memory and wish
And longing like the roaring hell

7. He plucks dreams and memories as
The harvester plucks the cluster with his palm

8. What memory? What longing brought me back
So my heart became a flying wing

9. And if the world is in my palm a lute
Enchanted in the hand of a skilled chanter

10. Sometimes I sing and listen sometimes
To the stories of the mocking time

11. So time tells from my father's world
A memory that shames the face of the rememberer

12. And I carry his memory... as
The wronged carries the tyrant's whip

13. And I sing the glory of my noble ancestors
Who took pride in weakness, the pride of the Capable

14. And from the ancestors? Why did I set them apart?
The law of the foolish savage beast

15. And their values are an immortal heritage
Inherited from elder to elder

16. How can I forget yesterday while today is its son
And tomorrow coming is the child of the present

17. And I am the son of poetry, my heart is a world
Of affection and encompassing fervor

18. The eras toss around me as
The eddying waves of the turbulent sea

19. And my solitude is wandering like
The passion of "Layla" and the ghost of "Al-Amri"

20. And my loneliness is silent singing and visions from
Moses' staff and the calf of "Al-Samiri"

21. From the child's eccentricity, from the youth's conceit
From the old man's sorrow, the stumbling pauper

22. From the demons' fantasies and from
The wisdom of the messengers and the wizard's fraud

23. From the pleadings of the destitute and from
The arrogance of the tyrannical conqueror

24. From the trader's greed for profit and from
The specter of bankruptcy around the trader

25. From the complaints of a lover walking on
His heart toward a beloved... aloof

26. My solitude is inspiration and a world of guidance
And misguidance, certainty confused and

27. Affection and fearful waiting
And hope like the smile of the deceiver

28. And passion laughing at the charming beloved as
The meadow laughs at the onlooker's eye

29. My loneliness is a swing of contemplation
Circling like the revolving horizon

30. And the daughters of art around me are troops
Like the fragrant breezes of the blooming spring

31. And I am like the deprived gazelle in
The procession of the arousing, journeying herd

32. I desire one so her sister approaches
My hand like a playful father

33. One sweet comes near and hides, a sweet one
Like the brightness behind the murky darkness

34. This one gives without my asking
And I confide in that one the whisper of the loser

35. And I compose rhymes of her scent
While she refuses and wishes for my inclination

36. Her promise evokes the memory of "Hatim"
And her loyalty is an image of "Muddar"

37. How you call me, so arousing my agony
And turn away like curdled milk... devious

38. And the darkness is a cemetery slumbering
On the funeral's dream and the gravedigger's wailing

39. The anxiety of silence is like the vision of a harlot
Who slept in my arms, licentious

40. Like the hopes of an oppressor longing
For the lashes of an apparition of a rebel

41. Fearfully walking with in his bosom
The arrogance of the tyrant and the disbelief of the infidel

42. And the shooting stars are lost in his procession
Like the hallucinations of an insomniac

43. And the smoke of hatred in his eyelids
Like sins upon the face of a whore

44. The devil passes through him and upon
His lips the laughter of the victor

45. And the throbbing of silence proclaims that in
His secret is the clamor of a pouncing raid

46. And visions emerge from behind the dunes
The resonant psalms of the coming day

47. And the unseen laments the remorseful repentance
Yearning for a smile from the Forgiver

48. While I, alone, complain calling out
With the melodious, pure mouth of revelation

49. And the tranquility of the hut asks me
Shall I sing to the desolate void?

50. I said I am a poet, in my solitude
A thousand worlds of the poet's specters