1. The days of youth you greeted, will you return?
Like the days of our covenant and pacts

2. Nights of passion and youthful folly
Days that did not flee from me, the fledglings

3. And when we rose at dawn, blithe and lively
We reaped the orchard’s joy and cool shade

4. With song and gardens, maidens strolling between
Doelike beauties over whom warriors stand guard

5. They shook the myrtle boughs that sway beneath them
Steeds on which ride swelling breasts of gazelles

6. And they walked amid tatters and trinkets, breasts
Graceful swimmers circle, eyed by spies

7. And I had midst these pleasures an abode to my taste
Filled with joy, bright and ever consoling

8. Oh, the beauty of those days of youth and their goodness!
When love was awake and life upright

9. We were like two branches of sweet basil in a bouquet
Our two branches perfumed, watered from one stream

10. A youth swimming in love’s immersion, guided and led
By passions for joys and sports

11. But when from his fervent love an awakening came
And the gatherings grew too confining

12. Age’s solemnity came to his aid
Shielding him from youth’s madness and excess

13. And he busied himself reforming what had passed
For a time preoccupied with his own decay

14. Yet what awakens his longing for that early bond
Is remembrance returning and renewing

15. The hearts of lovers melt, tender from parting
While callous hearts remain solid and frigid

16. My friend, how sweet is the anguish of love
For the youthful, if not for the separation distancing

17. Oh, that day of parting, what a stand it was for us!
Secrets appeared and confidences dissolved

18. The morning we parted, of it all that remained
Were but two: a hunter and hunted by love

19. And I, full of yearning, pouring out tears
Whose flames betrayed the fire of ardent longing

20. And the secret of a farewell that stole up behind
Watched by eyes keeping guard from a distance

21. Do tell, was she faithful to the pact when we found
That beauty far off? Am I still her beloved?

22. If distance has brought her solace, though my love grows
My passion remains constant, ever increasing

23. And if the perfection of night has restored her zeal
Then all night I lie awake, sleepless

24. My eyes upon the stars, distracting me
While my companions lie still in their beds

25. But the thought alone bears the pain and burden
Is there fortune for the lovelorn found in her abode?

26. I ready myself to be her lover’s equal
Yet where is purity found, and who will assist me?

27. I pretend to indulge a companion, as if
I seek through him to attain reunion

28. And more than others I bemoan the age’s injustice
Though it is but a ruse, a devious pretense

29. When will hopes be sated by the rain of wishes
When generosity withholds the clouds?

30. We court favors from kings now passed
And desire wealth through poetry made worthless

31. When I act like those I see, I weep
For princes whose aid I’ve lost

32. The masters of verse are extinct, too humbled
By poverty to seek the ends of nobles

33. Were it not for Abu Abdillah, assemblies
Of virtue would be empty and sights arid

34. I praise the fair efforts of Muhammad
And that I live in an age with one praising him

35. He gave life through Ibn Muammar
As he built for the honored house a pillar

36. He relieved us of stitches binding needs, the master
His neighbor succeeds, the newcomer thrives

37. His vast hall is fertile, gentle, never ceasing
To bear fruit, its plains richly watered

38. His nature impelled him to every virtue
Customs in him combined and coalesced

39. His lineage is generosity and dashing valor
Glory from protecting the honored flows to him

40. People confuse and share in virtue
But Abu Abdillah is peerless

41. How can he be matched, when his lineage
Is Asad, traced to the glorious and deathless?

42. From Mudar the ruddy came a tribe
Whose glory ascends the line of Adnan

43. They are his party from the house of Khandaf
His fortress, sword, and aid from them

44. Through them the Prophet’s house by night
Heals the blind, saves those in peril

45. In both houses of Ma’add and Yarub he has
High-born offspring, foundations

46. Congratulations Abu Abdillah! Yours is the height
None approach you or contend

47. Your fullness of gifts enriches the land
Your knowledge that you excel suffices

48. In each heart you have a place of love
In every horizon a sign of your bounty

49. Your clouds pour down when they gather
Massed rainclouds, layered, buttressed

50. Your noble qualities have none to catch up
Your generous hands, none to deny

51. You surpassed kings in merit
Though many envied and were hostile

52. They saw the merit you possessed
And all gained rank through that merit

53. Do you not know generosity is lasting?
While all things, save glory, expire?

54. Can two opposites equal glory? One desiring praise
Another for virtue ascetic?

55. You, Abu Abdillah Muhammad
We found you praiseworthy, endowed with bounty

56. Hopes took refuge in you and poems came
Flowing, intricately crafted, and deathless

57. Brides of verse, poems whose dowries
Will pass, though they remain eternal

58. They are raiment for the honor of kings
And necklaces for the finest expressions

59. If they lose a patron, they will come to you
When from others neglected and forgotten

60. You give age-old glory, O son of Muammar
The lofty comes to you and celebration returns

61. Your hands seize glory joyfully
As the envious and hostile look on