ألا أيها الناسي قديم مودة

أبيت لها حفظاً مع النوم ذاكرا

Ah, you who have forgotten an affection of old,

I pass the night keeping faith with it, remembering it even in sleep.

أراك إذا أومأت نحو مهمة

ركبت إليها كل هول مبادرا

I see you, whenever you set your sights on some grave undertaking,

ride toward it through every terror, hastening.

وإن عرضت حاج إليك صغيرة

أعدت رسولي مخفق السعي صاغرا

Yet if some small need is presented to you,

you send my messenger back, his effort thwarted and himself humbled.

فإن كنت ذا عدلاً دعونا عادلاً

وإن كنت ذا جوراً دعوناك جائرا

If you are a man of justice, then we have appealed to one who is just;

and if you are a man of oppression, we have called you an oppressor.

ولو كنت كالنقاش فيما عدمته

من الشعر لم يعدم من الناس غادرا

Even if you were like al-Naqqāsh in what you lack

of poetry, poetry would not lack among humankind someone to betray it.

ولكنني مازلت أدعى حقيقة

وإلا مجازاً قبل شعرك شاعرا

Yet I have always been called, in the literal sense,

or, if not, metaphorically—a poet before your verse.

وقد أزمع الوفد اليماني رحلة

فرأيك في أن لا تعوق المسافرا

The Yemeni delegation has resolved to set out;

so what say you to not hindering the traveler?