1. Has the night grown long, or has the sojourn dragged on,
Or has the melancholic one counted it endless through his sorrow?

2. So he spent the night sighing heavily in anguish,
While, on the other hand, the doves were delighted.

3. His body grew accustomed to illnesses until,
He fears that well-being may leave him.

4. And he allured his eyelids with wakefulness until,
He dreads that sleep may come to him.

5. Worries gathered upon him in succession,
As the crows gather upon the water.

6. In his affliction, he lacked a helper,
And his night lacked the full moon.

7. So his heart was sorely troubled,
And the darkness and his worries narrowed around him.

8. As if its stars were the eyelids of a weeping man,
As if the night were a torrent rushing headlong.

9. O father of the full moons, none are like me,
Attempting to sleep but unable to sleep.

10. I insisted on silence and spent the night complaining,
But how can silence accompany fervent passion?

11. Neither its silence benefits me,
Nor does talking benefit the stars.

12. It is as if I were a reader and the night a book,
With a beginning but without an end.

13. Thus is sorrow - the most difficult thing one faces
When the darkness falls quiet and people fall asleep.

14. My soul yearns for the lands of Syria,
May the clouds water you, O Syria!

15. And none but Syria and its inhabitants
Would console me, even if Syria were far.

16. And were it not for my staying in Egypt,
By your father, my stay would not have dragged on!

17. A year has passed over me in the land of Egypt,
And another year is coming.

18. Yet it is not Egypt that has captured my heart,
But its people are generous folk.

19. Their affection remains over the days,
And their neighbor is inviolable, unharmed.

20. Among their traits is the softness of dispositions
When they originate from an affection ever flowing.

21. And you see in their breasts a patience
When dreams obey through it discordance.

22. Through their perseverance the nights insisted
Without ever despairing of tomorrow or sleeping.

23. Those coveting the land of Egypt
Wish they in it forever resided.

24. No wonder, then, they bridled the reins
Of one severe in might, having no peer.

25. We blame speech, and yet have slipped,
And they strayed from right, but blameless they remain.

26. Their constitution they call laws
When the veil has feminized the man.

27. To what prevents Egypt’s constitution,
The pens were about to win through.

28. O Egyptians, be patient with events,
For before daybreak the clouds will gather.

29. And no frustration will befall you, for I
Saw injustice - it has always had a course.

30. For the night is followed by dawn,
And the end of war is peace.