1. I kept faith with those whose love was not reciprocated, yet they did not keep faith.
And I was fair to those who were passionate, to be equitable.

2. And I became devoted to a beloved whose coquetry makes all the same to me, whether he visits or is cold.
The curves of her figure cling between garments;

3. her stony heart refused to be affectionate.
So O you who saw the radiant full moon frowning,

4. and witnessed the shy gazelle with glancing eyes,
and O you who killed desire with a bond

5. that falsely imputed passion to one feigning it,
and killed maidens whenever they appeared,

6. grabbing the impassioned heart,
and veiled them so that only witnesses showed -

7. jet black eyelids or a provocative dimple,
and kissed lips that inclined the branches gently

8. when they donned the rippling, pleated silk,
hunting us down from every flock of beauties

9. with better than a gazelle's glance and curve.
Oh, happy were the days of youth when we gathered

10. for pleasures - more faithful than a devoted companion!
Nights when separation did not interrupt our meeting place,

11. and days when estrangement did not hurl us far apart,
and songs with which we whiled away the evening and the dawn,

12. and garden spots we spent in springtide and summertime.
The days of youth are fair in their seclusion

13. on pleasures, never to be erased though dissipated.
Its life seems sweetest with boon companion and garden,

14. and singing partner warbling like a bulbul in the trees,
when it has poured its spirit into the fragile glass

15. and abandonment makes it grieve with slighted love.
Youth poured what it poured while the bough of adolescence thrived,

16. managing the means of passion as it wished,
until age came and youth departed

17. with my excuse, and I was left the censured one, forlorn.
Only regret remains, to my soul's remorse,

18. both having determined that it should feel remorse.
That is because the soul transgressed and did not stop,

19. and ardors of the heart went on and on unhealed.
Yet how good is the world and how sweet its bliss

20. for us, be it illusion and ornament.
By your life, the youth is not granted a nature

21. and made to keep to it without its being exposed!
You see each moment someone who does evil or good

22. to the point he will be recompensed for what he has been.
My friend, prosperity has come to you; it remains

23. only for you to be content, even if frugal.
Before you lie two choices: either to stay

24. with patience and restraint or to travel about.
Water-skin carriers ply the winding roads

25. to convey needs and foster affection.
Shadowy tents of night unload in the open country

26. when the guide halts his charges and stirs them to leave.
The pilgrims bound for Mecca crept off and deserted it,

27. arriving unexpectedly to surprise Medina.
Noble by nature and habit in disposition,

28. word, deed, imitation and exemplar,
and superior to one who complied and circled round,

29. by the Stone, the Spout, the Corner and the Hill of Safa,
and to one who excelled among pilgrims in his rites

30. and fulfilled Mina and Arafat best,
when he had done his duty in completing

31. the sacred acts, stance by stance,
and prepared to bid farewell, depart and be off,

32. traversing the confused and jumbled wasteland,
and braved a bit of the wilderness in every camp,

33. even eating grass, so harsh his test,
enduring grief in the desolate hills by night

34. and suffering sadness and hardship in the thickets,
until he came to stay awhile in a pasture for him,

35. a place of dew and summer quarters,
to enrich a pauper and give to a beggar,

36. hoping for righteous deeds to be accepted.
So there emerged in his fine actions

37. stars that shone and clouds that poured down rain -
my lord Al-Muhayyi Al-‘Uly who restored it

38. when it was on the verge of ruin.
But for Nadat Dhahal's munificence and good deeds,

39. then a quarter of perfections would have declined!
Generous, his portion of wealth is not counted

40. except what profits and is spent.
He disburses money judiciously among its aspects

41. to the deserving, even if called extravagant.
He benefits if the miser is grudging in his support;

42. he gives aid if the stars fail to assist.
His custom is benevolence before vengeance,

43. and his noble nature suffices him for pretense.
The sheikh of Bani Nabhan is he, the one to whom

44. one repairs in any affair for refuge.
Of the two chiefs whom his actions installed

45. in the lofty, inaccessible fortress,
they prepared it until they sheltered him from harm

46. with the swords of Muzaqi and Washij the literate.
Abu Hasan, how fine are the qualities

47. you were granted, and how excellent, pure and noble!
I found you endowed with each merit

48. and worthy to be extolled in verse.
At all times you strive for God's sake

49. aspiring only to be drawn nearer.
You whom we meet in munificence without peer

50. and courage a raging flood, penetrating in thought.
You are not one who, if resolved on some course, defers it,

51. nor one, once inclined, who prevaricates.
You sufficed against time's injuries and harms

52. and were rewarded with profit and proven blessings.
You were granted in your sons, the noble wishes,

53. together, and shielded from the dreaded misfortune.
Your house guards among necklaces a virgin

54. who fades beside brocade, a coat of mail and fringes.
Abu Hasan, how excellent are the qualities