The pattern is that of the formal message from the lover to the absent beloved. After a brief prelude in which the poet reflects within himself (lines 1-2), he turns at once to the Messenger who is to carry his missive, describes shortly his journey (lines 3-6), and then gives him the substance of his message (lines 7-10). The Reproacher has to be silenced (lines versus 11-15), and there is much elegance in the balance between the poet’s imprecation against him (line 11) and his blessing upon the Messenger (line 3); we learn that the Reproacher was formerly the lover’s friend (line 14). In verse 16 the poet interjects a general rebuke to all reprochers, before addressing himself direct to his absent friends and assuring them of his eternal constancy (versus 17-20). He allows himself a melancholy meditation, introduced by a blessing (line 21), upon the happy days and nights he once knew when he was in Mecca with his beloved companions (lines 21-24), whom he once more addresses in the concluding couplet (lines 25-26), introduced by the customary solemn oath; though he has received no verbal greeting form them (see line 9), in fact every breeze blowing from the East where they are dwelling brings fresh life to his dying soul. The meter is Kamil.

Line 2. Laila of the Banu ‘Amir was the celebrated beauty beloved of the mad poet Qais; here, as commonly in Sufi poetry, she is meant as a symbol of Divine Beauty. Line 4. Na’man is the name of several wadis, Na’man of the thorn-bush being distinguished from the others by that destination, it is debouching in to Waddan, a town lying between Mecca and al-Ta’if which was the scene of the first of the Prophet’s raids.   Line 5. "Arin" has two different meanings: the lair of a beast of prey, or a thicket of trees. It can also refer to "the passing away (fana') of a house or land." Line13. The commentators point out that the enchanters are described as wide-eyed because the wounds inflicted by their glances are then naturally extensive. The conceit of the beloved’s glances (often compared with arrows) wounding the lover’s heart is of course very common in Arabic poetry; here as usual Ibn al-Farid further refines the image. Line16. The poet is at rest because he no longer needs to dissemble his true feelings and behavior. Line 25. For the oath cf. I. 17. Zamzam: the MS. Gives the eccentric reading Mecca on the margin, but as the whole verse appears to refer to Abraham. It seems more likely that Zamzam is correct, in view of the legend that the well was miraculously ‘opened by Gabriel to save Hagar and her son Isma’il, who were dying of thrist in the desert’ (Encyclopedia of Islam, iv. 1212)	1. Was it a flash of lightening (barq) that shone over the mottled mountain of Ubayriq, or did I see a lamp (misbah) flickering in the hills of Nedj?
	2. Or was that Laila of the Banu ‘Amir who unveiled her face at night (laylan), and converted the evening dusk to dawn?
	3. You who ride the sturdy she-camel! Be safe from destruction! Whether you cross a rugged land, or wind your way through torrent-bottoms,
	4. And if you should pass along the valley of Na’man where the acacias grow, turn aside to a valley there I knew long ago, with gentle hillsides,
	5. Then at the right of al-‘Alaman, skirting Na’man to the East, turn and stop awhile at its sweet-scented arin.
	6. And when you have arrived at the corded mountains opposing the sandy stretches of Liwa, inquire after a heart that has perished in that torrent-bed,
	7. And give my greetings to the inhabitants dwelling there, saying ‘I left him athirst to be by your side.’
	8. You who live in the highlands of Najd, will no mercy be found for one who is a prisoner to a loved companion, who does not desire to wander free?
	9. ‘Why have you not sent a greeting to the impassioned one, in the folds of the clear, pure evening winds,
	10. Which would revive him who used to consider your departure from him to be but a jest, and believed jesting far removed from your nature?’
	11. You who would criticize a passionate heart, ignorant of what he has long endured--may you never achieve success!--
	12. You have wearied yourself in giving good advice to someone whose determined view it is that he will not look upon prosperity and good fortune ever again:
	13. Refrain-I would have nothing to do with you!-and reject him whose bowels have been mercilessly wounded by wide-eyed enchanters.
	14. You were a friend, until you offered advice to one passionate with love; have you ever seen a young man in love who is friendly to those who give him advice?
	15. If you would seek to reform me, know that for my own part I have never desired any reformation for the ruin of my heart in passion
	16. What is it that the reproachers desire, by reproaching someone who has clothed himself in unrestraint (khala’a), and taken his rest and is at repose?
	17. O people of my affection, is it possible that someonewho hopes for union with you should attain his ambition, and so his mind enjoy rest?
	18. Since you have been absent from my gaze, truly my sighing fills all the regions of Egypt with lamentation.
	19. And when I remember you, I find it difficult to stand straight, as though I have been, in the fragrance of remembering you, offered a drink of wine.
	20. And when I am urged to pretend forgetfulness of my bond with you, I find my bowels are very jealous of that bond.
	21. Fresh forever be the recollection of those days passed by, with neighbours in whose company our nights were festivals indeed;
	22. When the tribe’s enclosure was my homeland too, and the dwellers of al-Ghada were my heart’s whole comfort, and when I came down as I pleased to water there freely;
	23. And its dear people were my desire, and the shade of its palm-trees my joy, and the sands of its two valleys my place of repose
	24. Alas for that time and its sweetness, days when I ever found rest from weariness!
	25. I swear by Zamzam well and the place where Abraham stood, and he who came to the Kaaba crying ‘Here I am, O Lord, at your service!’ one journeying in the land:
	26. Never did the breeze wafting from the East sway the sweet-scented wormwood of the sand-hills, but that is brought new life from you to the lovers slain by passion.

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