1. A day we spend quenching thirst,
Oh, if only all our days were so sweet!

2. I left my family and home, and there
I did not part from a family or homeland.

3. If a stranger says, as he comes to stay,
“Egypt is no true home,” he is wrong.

4. A nature soft as the cheek of the meadow in early dawn
Inclining to the clouds, while the meadow is thirsty.

5. And of eloquent men in speech, when
They talked, they enchanted the stubborn and unyielding.

6. And of gentle traits that blew like the breeze and
Stirred branches from the barren valley.

7. Poetry came to me, comforting me and enlivening me—
Was it a breeze, or was it sweet basil?

8. You gave us to drink from the pure nectar of words—
Its lawfulness from the unlawful wind made us joyous.

9. Nay! You sang it to the songbirds of the grove
Whose branches we swayed as we listened to your singing.

10. With Ibn Uthman, the noble virtue, we found salvation
And from old, the Uthman house was generous.