1. Damascus, where are the sons of Umayyah? Tell me,
So they may see the radiance of your beautiful generosity.

2. With the glory of their mosque and elegance of their kingdom,
Preserve this beauty with your flowing hair.

3. What is the state of Ghouta, which grieved over them,
And so took revenge on the bowmen?

4. Malice has passed for misery and sorrow.
We are all noble, generous Arabs.

5. And those caliphs defended an
Arab zeal with every true native.

6. They were honored among kings and honored
A kingdom lesser than theirs, sold to strangers.

7. They spread their sovereignty and remained lords
Until the drawing of the loosened blade.

8. I yearn for their caliphate and keep to its covenant
And for its memory I weep upon contemplation.

9. It remained purely Arab, untouched, unhumiliated,
And on the floodplains it heralded departure.

10. The newcomers never marred its beauty a day,
It is the one that fell without humiliation.

11. For the Umayyads is a place in souls
With might, benevolence, and temperance.

12. They ruled hearts with their forbearance and generosity
And held the reins of clan and tribe.

13. They died as they lived, distinguished kings,
Not seized by force or indignity.

14. They killed equals, not market rabble,
And passed on in glory that aroused envy.

15. In the shade of their state and shade of their banners,
The conquest of the inhabited world was complete.

16. So their hands have poured goodness on the Arabs,
A soul disposed to exalt and declare:

17. “God is great!” I revere their loyalty and trials,
For upon the free they conferred every favor.

18. Nuṣayr ibn Sayyār’s sword broke
Defending them when Lahm ruled.

19. He honored that noble, magnificent hero,
For guarding the dearest martyr.

20. Mu‘ān ibn Zā’idah, that protector, his comrade,
In defending Arab zeal and glory,

21. Impelled by zeal and enthusiasm,
While the Persians in their malice fled.

22. Damascus, you are an Umayyad princess
With palace, throne, and crown.

23. Weep for Mu‘āwiya who with his guile
Made the caliphate your prize between rivals.

24. So by his rule you became queen of the earth,
Revered and honored.

25. And from Constantinople you saw harm
So you drove it back with army and fleet.

26. You shook the kingdom of Constantine when
The remnants of his defeated army fled.

27. He was a tyrant, and in his arrogance
He erected nations after their sloth.

28. He it was who laid the firm foundation
For the kingdom, among humiliation and terror.

29. Yet he saw you beneath his sword and regime
As the axis of the world in dawn and origin.

30. Forever over you looms the shadow of his specter
Remembering an era of wonderful deeds.

31. Alas! Will an Umayyad state return
That left so many glorious relics?

32. The white banners and deeds have fallen
Beneath the black, enveloping curtain.

33. The Umayyad Mosque, of their relics,
How it has aimed its glances in confusion!

34. It combined magnificence, beauty, guidance,
Remaining the best example of generosity.

35. The Aqsa Mosque also flows to their virtues,
Though this age is mean and miserly.

36. In their days the Arabs prevailed over nations
And roamed the land like floods.

37. To them belongs the wilderness they overran, and for them
They roamed its breadth and length.

38. The Turks were crushed by the blow
Of Asad ibn ‘Abdallah’s mighty arm.

39. Abundant were his spoils and killings
Through their faith in God and revelation.

40. Muḥammad al-Qasrī brought his steeds
To India's waters, after the Nile.

41. The Indian belittled Alexander before
His admiration of the raving conqueror.

42. Tariq seized beautiful Andalus
In a momentous and stirring battle.

43. The enemy leader found his death rattle
As he fled panic-stricken like a rabbit.

44. The Goths fell in the river’s current,
Drowned and slain, now journeying their course,

45. While the Arabs took the noblest course.
With the swords of Musa and Qutayba

46. And Hajjaj’s blade, that terror,
They subdued rebels, though their evil swelled,

47. Scattered by a bound prisoner’s appeal.
Likewise their enemy chieftains were slain

48. And their mountains trampled like plains.
With great commanders, lions of evil,

49. Who routed armies, now in tatters,
They tightened ropes around their foes and tightened,

50. Collecting a humbled ruler's tribute.
For their excellent aid and fierce might

51. They ruled ease after hardship.
It's as if they were born to elevate a people

52. Begotten by the noblest women and husbands.
From them life remembers its offspring

53. And through them guidance, like stars and lamps.
Their raids were their delight, in which

54. They lodged the land of Rum, the best lodging.
How many glories were sired by an Arab woman,

55. Beautiful, flawless, not languid or infirm!
No Arab was born but a horseman,

56. Or a poet, or a hospitable host to a guest.
Damascus, her defenders were Arabs

57. Whose beds were the backs of steeds,
Their swords forgot their sheaths

58. From so much drawing and killing.
You became bereaved, and none would speak of your loss

59. Save the blow of an unsheathed blade,
In an Arab raid that would erase

60. All trace of the Greeks' rule and chain.
It would be a flood to cleanse corruption

61. And discretion in resolve and haste.
Ferocity in a burning, consuming attack

62. That walks to war like an elephant,
And victory from a growing, swelling

63. Fury among the battalions like flames in hay.
By God, dwellings, inform me:

64. Is there a visit from my long-loved one?
Always I visit you weeping,

65. Lamenting or remembering like a guide.
And over you my poems murmur plaintively

66. Until the dawn of your longed-for bliss.
Oh, how miserable my birth came late

67. To be the poet of loss and ruin!
Behind me and before me are times of woe,

68. And the wreckage of a toppled caliphate.
Ruins lie in dust, holding nothing

69. But darkness of night or spilt blood.
Yet in weakness I seek strength

70. And live reminded and reminding.
I ornamented the dream of Arab youth

71. And lifted a torch for the lost.
It's as if I'm the digger of a grave wherein

72. Is a rapture for the ringing and wailing
Of a mourner, hoping for restoration and life

73. For a people in relics and vain outline.
Damascus, no Syrian can settle until

74. The Roman leaves after descending.
Al-Walīd, whose strings were cut in you

75. And whose cups shattered while kissing.
He has a beauty I don't forget,

76. For he loved all that is beautiful.
I am a poet who weeps for him and his verse,

77. Fulfilling the rights of the murdered poet.
Or do you not love the caliph who was a poet,

78. Singing at times and trailing skirts?
Or do you not see his murder as justice

79. For listening to tunes and drinking wine?
In either case I weep, and passion

80. Is blind to prohibition or permission.
Over you is Ibn Abi Rabi‘ah's stance

81. And a poem from his infatuated heart.
Or are you weeping for Kuthayyir's verse

82. One day, chanting lovely verse the next?
It hardly melts my haste and hardness

83. To weep for bliss in the shade of a torrent.
It's as if Yunus still sings

84. To al-Walid with his melodious voice,
Al-Akhṭal the fop sips his cup

85. And says, “O world, incline to my verse!”
And trails his skirts before a caliph

86. Who adorned the crown with a crown.
Greater Syria is an Arabian filly,

87. Its branches joined to their roots.
It knew its Arab mother's milk from her breast,

88. Our spirit being one, without division.
It yearns always for its mother's embrace,

89. By God, that mother is not neglectful.
From the era of Far‘ah and its ancestry

90. To Ghassan's guidance by the Gospel.
It was and remains an Arab land,

91. With generations proving so, one after another.
Religion, blood, and language are its witnesses,

92. And the judgment of nature and reason suffices.
Say to the non-Arabs and dissenters: Stop!

93. You will not divide what is undivided.
Arabism resides in these hearts, so loving it

94. Is stronger than misleading and insult.
From Iraq to Greater Syria, to the Hijaz, Yemen,

95. And Sheba, the land of palm trees,
And the West from Egypt to Morocco,

96. With every territory embraced by guidance.
They are branches of one trunk

97. Or fruit of one vine,
All bound in kinship to that source.

98. In numbering them is an intransitive verb's declension,
And a congruence of agent and object.

99. Built on the Qur’an - it is their foundation,
For the cooperation between them is intended.

100. Sovereignty over them is one and unifying,
With no fear of injustice or favoritism.

101. Damascus, the caliphs honored you for a time,
And their era was beautiful like the shade of tamarisk.

102. Are you pleased with a successor after them,
Or a cringing subordinate of the subordinate?

103. The Arabs are Greater Syria’s rulers and its people,
Their graves stamp its record.

104. Of them it has caliphs, princes, or scholars,
Their number is not few.

105. So peace be upon their relics and shrines,
And upon a soil ploughed by their blood.