1. O pale camels of the Hijaz, you carried the noble ones,

    and left behind a sorrowful man dying of love's frenzy.

  2. You journeyed swiftly by night, driven by longing, in earnest,

    so passion stirred the blaze within my heart.

  3. Why did you not take your time when setting out,

    for an ardent lover whom separation clothed in sickness?

  4. He moans a moan that softens rocks,

    and his moaning makes the doves weep for him.

  5. He spends the night watching the stars, and has

    loved sleeplessness and made sleep his enemy.

  6. And he weeps tears resembling blood,

    and they shame the clouds as they flow.

  7. He regards sleeplessness in love as a duty upon him,

    since sleep is forbidden to him.

  8. And my night has no dawn that gleams;

    so has dawn sworn never to be seen?

  9. And morning used to draw against

    the armies of darkness—black warriors—a keen sword.

  10. So alas for my heart, as the fire of heartache

    burns ever hotter and grows more fiercely ablaze.

  11. Separation kindles love within my heart,

    and separation surely stirs passion.

  12. I turn my face to welcome

    the breeze of the Hijaz, lavender's nursling.

  13. And I have no aim beyond the Hijaz,

    and my heart inclines toward it, lost in love.

  14. And my eyes see nothing but it,

    and indeed I feign blindness to everything else.

  15. I have always gazed eagerly toward its lightning,

    so it might give the lovesick lover a smile of its own.

  16. So, pale camels, may you be brought to your goal,

    and attain a dwelling in the land of the Hijaz.

  17. So journey earnestly to Taybah,

    and alight there, and pitch the tents.

  18. For there is the Messenger, the prophet of guidance,

    noble in lineage, exalted in glory.

  19. Intercessor for sins and physician of hearts,

    he thus drove sickness away from them and out of them.

  20. Beloved of the Majestic One and best of intimate friends,

    and the loftiest guide, through whom truth stood firm.

  21. He dispelled error with the dawn of guidance,

    and light indeed dispels darkness.

  22. A prophet for whom God indeed graciously harnessed

    the clouds, to shade him wherever he went.

  23. A prophet who, over the noble prophets,

    took precedence by praying as their imam.

  24. A prophet who indeed came to us as a mercy

    from God, which has continued to embrace all humankind.

  25. A prophet who ascended to the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary,

    and there attained a station of glory.

  26. A prophet who saw his Lord and dwelt in glory,

    and God made him hear His own speech.

  27. A prophet for whom the full moon in the sky was split,

    and afterward it returned as a full moon, whole again.

  28. He is the Chosen One, God's elect, who

    made clear to us the lawful and the forbidden.

  29. He is the impregnable refuge, humankind's sheltering cave;

    he is the rescuer through the ages, the orphans' aid.

  30. So far be it from him, whose intercession is accepted, that

    I should be lost at the Gathering or be wronged.

  31. So, my God, in Your bounty, bless him

    with lasting blessings, and grant him peace;

  32. and then bless his family and companions, all together,

    and bestow that favor upon them unceasingly.

  33. And increase that as long as the doves sing,

    and lavender's fragrance wafts from Taybah,

  34. and as long as Abd al-Latif offers praise,

    fashioning eloquence within it in harmonious order.

  35. So grant him favor through the Messenger's standing,

    and, my God, grant him a good ending from You.

Sol 6.1