oh how strange is the sorrow of a man who has died and there is no sorrow for one who was killed unjustly. then time struck its blows and we were expelled from our homes and the berber army overcame us so i left cordoba at the beginning of muharram in the year four hundred and four and she disappeared from my sight after that single sight for six years and more then i entered cordoba in shawwal in the year four hundred and nine and i stayed with one of our women and saw her there and i could hardly recognize her until it was said to me this is soandso and most of her beauty had changed and her freshness had gone and that joy had vanished and that water which had been seen like a polished sword and an indian mirror had dried up and that flower which the sight used to aim towards in amazement and search in it choosing and turning away from it in bewilderment had withered and nothing remained but some that informed of the whole and the news that informed of the whole and that was due to her lack of interest in herself and her lack of the protection with which she had been nourished during the days of our state and the extension of our shadow and her spending in going out in what was necessary for her from what she was protected from
فيا عجبا من آسف لامرئ ثوى وما هو للمقتول ظلما بآسف ثم ضرب الدهر ضربانه وأجلينا عن منازلنا، وتغلب علينا جند البربر، فخرجت عن قرطبة أول المحرم سنة أربع وأربعمائة، وغابت عن بصري بعد تلك الرؤية الواحدة ستة أعوام وأكثر، ثم دخلت قرطبة في شوال سنة تسع وأربعمائة، فنزلت على بعض نسائنا فرأيتها هنالك، وما كدت أن أميزها حتى قيل لي هذه فلانة وقد تغير أكثر محاسنها وذهبت نضارتها، وفنيت تلك البهجة وغاض ذلك الماء الذي كان يرى كالسيف الصقيل والمرآة الهندية، وذبل ذلك النوار الذي كان البصر يقصد نحوه منبهرا ويرتاد فيه متخيرا وينصرف عنه متحيرا، فلم يبق إلا البعض المنبئ عن الكل، والخبر المخبر عن الجميع، وذلك لقلة اهتبالها بنفسها وعدمها الصيانة التي كانت غذيت بها أيام دولتنا وامتداد ظلنا ولتبذلها في الخروج فيما لابد لها منه مما كانت تصان