1. You left me here amidst torment
And went away, O how long my sadness and depression is

2. You left me alone to misery here
And rested alone amongst the soil

3. Where there is no tyranny, no evil, no
Atom grows and nurtures ruin

4. Where there is no sword nor bomb
Where there is no war nor glint of weaponry

5. Where there is no shackle, no whip, no
Oppressor who transgresses and oppressed who seeks refuge

6. You left me to recall the past as
An old man recalls the fantasies of youth

7. And you kept away from me and my longing surrounds you
Reciting the past - oh - what's past is past

8. And the reaper of life called her to
Where I call her but she turns deaf to my call

9. Where I call her but none hears me
Except the silence of the grave and desolate wilderness

10. Her death was all my affliction
And my life after her atop my affliction

11. Where is her comforting shade that
Departed from me never to return

12. She dragged my wounded days over
The surface of ruins and cliffs

13. And walked the paths of life from
One rugged road to a world of ordeals

14. And ended where her journey ended with her
So she rested under the curtains of absence

15. Oh "mother" and the thorns of sorrow
Inflame the pains in my melting heart

16. In you I bade farewell to my youth and prime
And past me are the sweetnesses of my first steps

17. How can I forget you and your memory is
Upon the pages of my book page after page

18. Your memory is behind me and before
My course wherever I go and return

19. How often I recalled your hands as
They were in my hands or in my food and drink

20. Your lean stature pitied my thinness and if
The cold touched me your clothes warmed me

21. And if hunger made me cry and you
Had nothing but false promises

22. Your palms would pat my head as the
Dawn breeze pats the meadows

23. How your brown hand led me to
Our farm in the Ghoul, in the Qaa el Rehab

24. And to the valley, to the shade, where
The garden breathes the scent of blossoms

25. And the brooks chant their tunes
Melting like kindness amid sweet reproach

26. How we wished and how you indulged me
Under the silence of night and the sleepy comets

27. How your eyes wept when they saw
My sight fading and vanishing behind the veil

28. And you recalled my fate and the agony
Between your ribs, wounds festering

29. Soaring glory, a far glint in the comets
I fill history with melody and echo

30. And my Oud sings forever in paradise
So hear me mother, hear my voice and dance

31. From beyond the grave like a frolicking Houri