18/02/2026
Ka’b’s ibn Zuhayr’s Su’ad Has Departed ode is one of the most notable examples of odes praising the Prophet Muhammad. Called one of the most eloquent of classic Arabic poems, it also serves as a historical document of the early Islamic period. As a poet, Ka’b became a famous figure after he recited his burdah ode for the Prophet.
Beginning of
Qasida Banat Su`ad
by Ka`b ibn Zuhayr, the sahabi
Translated by anonymous
Su`ad is gone, and today my heart is love-sick,
in thrall to her, unrequited, bound with chains;
And Su`ad, when she came forth in the morn of the departure,
was but a gazelle with bright black downcast eyes.
When she smiles, she lays bare a shining row of side-teeth
that seems to have been bathed once and twice in (fragrant) wine -
Wine mixed with pure cold water from a pebbly hollow
where the north-wind blows, in a bend of the valley,
it brims over the white-framed torrents fed by showers
gusting from a cloud of morn.
Oh, what a rare mistress were she, if only she were true to
her promise and would harken good advice!
But hers is a love in whose blood are mingled paining and
lying and faithlessness and inconstancy.
She is not stable in her affection -
even as jinn change the hues of their garments -
And she does not hold to her promised word
anymore than a sieve holds water.
Let not the wishes she inspired and the promises she made
beguile thee; lo, these wishes and dreams are a delusion.
The promises of `Urqub* were a parable to her,
and his promises were not but lies.
I desire and hope that she would become a friend;
and (yet I) do not think that she would bestow such a blessing on us. ’b’s ibn Zuhayr
