1. We stood at the palace of the beloved, though it lies in ruin
We blame fate for what it did when it took control

2. Greetings of meaning to him, from one who is grieved
And say to him, from a companion, greetings again

3. I wept for him with tears, though if I were just,
I would weep blood, for tears are but blood’s kith and kin

4. So strange am I and he, that I am struck dumb
While the encampment thought I would speak out

5. Dwellings were stations for stars, stations
That became, in realms of remembrance, stars again

6. Oh encampment, say to me, how are you after they
Perished? The encampment said, after they went, naught remains

7. I tarried after the loved ones a while,
And had I any will, I would have been the first to go before

8. If you are above the earth a land, maybe
We knew you above the sky as our sky

9. Yesterday you told us about them truly,
Today you are but imagined conjecture woven

10. Dear to us that we see you on the worn path
Dust - though desire is warned not to take that as its creed

11. He was shunned by one who has no care for dignity
By one who does not heed what is inviolate and forbidden

12. So Hashimite, they succeeded him with a Hashim
And Arabic speaker, they punished him with a non-Arab

13. When the house was deserted after them
With no protector remaining, no sanctuary survives

14. Do not seek their homelands after despair
Maybe a homeland will be brought near by their return

15. You did not count the turns of fate as fickle
And betrayal - so from whom of the noble did you learn?

16. Not just you, my eye, were threatened, that building -
But a people’s building that was razed down

17. Nor did they teach fate, who they worshipped,
For its betrayal - was it then a trained foot?

18. How we made pilgrimage to you for glory, like Kaaba
And we held feast of praise in you, a great season

19. I will remind time of a wedding it held
Over which its nights held funeral for so long

20. And manifested in the rhymes of orphans its orphanhood
So may God not distance the orphan who makes whole

21. When the winds draw away their ends
The scent of that soil becomes scattered spoils

22. So which relief for the winds that it complained
When its raids share some booty from it

23. Nor is the earth fit to be home of his home
So the wind made him home in the sky

24. As if joy had not been freely yours
And the face of its beauty grimaced with a frown

25. As if that splendor did not become veiled kingdom
Nor that awe drive a restless army

26. Nor the delegation’s purpose the rising of a star -
when it rose, they prayed and greeted it

27. The Nile was not niggardly of its generosity with him
Nor was clemency dismissive of his compassion

28. Grandeur did not suffice him to become grander
Nor dreams suffice him to become a dreamer

29. He did not give to us save no wish or fear
But he saw it as inviolable and forbidden

30. So inherent nobility in nature - its superiority
And among people, whoever gives gives nobly

31. Discern the face a full moon, the right hand a cloud
Seeing clemency a towering mountain, resolve a piercing star

32. Arise in an abode where he gave it its standing
Speak to it of a faith securely steadfast

33. And say, O abode of those who blame against our will
Your pact is that time will be to you coerced

34. Take your vengeance, not your blood, so retaliate
Or else be one who blames it with lasting blame

35. Take my tears as a scattered pearl necklace
For long I strung the favors for it, a threaded necklace

36. Its rulers - if your time is incomplete
With your kingdom, I am left to complete

37. A person’s eyes see no life that he loves
Save for blindness, he has no beloved in it

38. I console a soul, though it fell not ill
With hopes tomorrow even falser and more ill

39. I make do with false hopes from you
But God does not disappoint the hopeful and deluded

40. My heart is filled with resolves
Had I found support today for my opinion, a resolve

41. I hesitate at what - had there been a supporter
I would not have named it before as a precedent

42. My fate threatens me with frustration of my hopes
Yet still I resolutely clash with sorrows

43. If I suspect a house that neighbors me wrongs
I do wrong, become the wronger in darkness

44. If sustenance does not hand you its lead
We will not ride, except the trotting raced

45. Bad is the evil the night sent as fate
And the fates that sent the whip are mean

46. Sever us from Adam and Eve's sons
Join us to progeny of Judayl and Shaddad

47. Of whom do you ask, when you are me?
Who is this about whom you asked, whatever for?

48. On the brink of a whim in his heart
That warned him from the sweet water, and thirst