1. Who is the roused one in the garb of nomads
With red anklets, mounts, and robes?

2. If you doubt their acquaintance
Then who informed you with torture and torment?

3. Do not blame me for being stingy after her loss
My pouring tears make amends

4. Sometimes their bridled camels sauntered
Impregnable between wounded and beaten

5. Sometimes the rider’s hands guided them
Onto a soft carpet of horsemen poured out

6. How many secret raids you have among the nomads
More calamitous when they slumber like wolves

7. I raid them while the darkness of night intercedes for me
And I elope as dawn’s whiteness entices me

8. They share the wilderness’ dwelling with beasts
And differ by destroying and pillaging

9. Their neighbors, the worst of all neighbors
And their company, the worst of all company

10. The heart of every lover lies in their abodes
And the money of every miser lies plundered

11. The beautiful visages of the civilized
Are not like the faces of nomad maidens

12. Urban beauty is obtained with grooming
While nomad beauty is untamed

13. Where is the slim gazelle in watching
And not watching, with beauty and grace?

14. I sacrifice the does of an unfrequented wilderness
Unacquainted with conversation or dyed robes

15. Who never emerged from a bath gracefully
Their bodies gleaming smoothly like statues

16. I abandoned dyeing my gray hair
Due to ardour for undisguised truth

17. I turned away from false hair on my head
Due to love of truthful speech and custom

18. If only fate had sold me that which it took
Of my patience it gave and my experience

19. For youth is no barrier to wisdom
Wisdom can be found in youth and old age

20. The accomplished king grew fully mature
An adept before mentorship, and cultured before cultivation

21. Experienced in insight before life lessons
Refined in generosity without refinement

22. Until he attained the zenith of this world
While his concern was with beginnings and youth

23. He governs the kingdom from Egypt to Aden
To Iraq, the land of Rome, and Nubia

24. When ill winds blow to it from any land
They only blow by his arrangement

25. No sun rises unless by his permission
To set in the west by his decree

26. He manipulates affairs with his ring’s clay
Even if every inscription were erased

27. He subdues every long spear’s holder
From the saddle of every long-roped camel

28. As if each question in his hearing
Were Joseph’s shirt in Jacob’s eyes

29. If enemies attack him with a problem
They attack with an unconquered army

30. Or battle him - they will not escape with a gift
Of what he desired, nor escape by denial

31. His valor harmed the furthest of his troops
Against doves, not by death of frightened ones

32. They said: “The rain migrated to him.” I said to them:
“To the downpours of his hands and youth,

33. “To the one whose power makes states tremble,
And does not bestow on fleeting traces of the gifted,

34. “And does not frighten anyone with a loss inflicted on him,
Nor terrifies a lavished one with misfortune.”

35. But he frightens one with an army disputing his
The like of it in the thick of battle - a ferocious lion

36. I found that the most beneficial wealth I hoarded
Was what my running pace and training contained

37. When I saw the turns of fate cheat me
And it was loyal to me and the days of youth expired

38. Seditions of destruction - until its sayer said:
“What have we met of bare poverty!”

39. It plunges with one whose ways are not
For wearing clothes, eating food, or drinking

40. He sees the stars through the eyes of one who struggles for them
As if they were war spoils in a dispossessed one’s eye

41.
Until I reached a veiled soul

42. That meets souls with unmatched grace
In a body of purest intellect that makes it laugh

43. People’s natures - the laughter of wonders
So praise before and after is due to Him

44. And to my reed-pipe, composing, and versifying
How can I show ingratitude, O Kafoor, for His bounty

45. When you have attained me, O every desire?
O king called ‘The Singing One’ with a name

46. Renowned in East and West, beyond description and title
You are the beloved, but I seek His protection