أرق جفني حبش ونوب

فبات والغمض به غريب

Abyssinians and Nubians have kept my eyelid awake,

so it passed the night with slumber a stranger to it—

عساكر تقدم أو تغيب

أيامها نوائب تنوب

armies that advance, or disappear,

whose days are calamities recurring.

أقول والصبر بهم مغلوب

واللون في لونهم غربيب

I say, with patience overcome by them,

and color itself a stranger amid their color:

ضاع دم بينكم مشروب

وضعف الطالب والمطلوب

Blood drunk among you has gone to waste,

and the pursuer and the pursued have both grown weak.