1. You have no horses to gift nor wealth,
So let your speech bring joy if your circumstances do not.

2. Reward the prince whose sudden favor
Came with no words - the speech of people is but words.

3. Sometimes kindness is rewarded by its patron
With a maid of the Hey tribe, lazy and plump.

4. And if tightly-wrapped dresses prevent me
From the appearance of open admiration, I have for them a modest gaze.

5. I did not thank you because wealth made me happy -
To me abundance and paucity are the same.

6. But I saw it as ugly to dispute with one
Who judges fairly, even if he is tightfisted.

7. So I became a bud in the garden of sorrow blooming early -
Rain without clouds bursting onto the ground.

8. Rain making clear to onlookers where it falls
That rain comes to the ignorant and the wise alike.

9. None attains glory but the shrewd leader
For whom what is difficult for men to bear is habit.

10. No ignorant heir appreciates the gift he is granted
Nor is there gain without the sword’s request.

11. Time said to him in words he understood:
“Time is stingy in all it brings.”

12. The canal knows when its banks shake under his hand
That the miserable find in it horses and heroes.

13. Your perfections, with kaaf entering, are diminished -
I said “like the sun” but nothing compares to the sun.

14. The lion leader feeds on its prey with his fangs -
The like of them from his enemies are only cubs.

15. The killing sword in the killer’s hand kills his victim -
Swords like men have appointed terms.

16. Raiding changes not his awe,
His wealth reaches earth’s far corners.

17. Of beasts he owns what his tongue chose -
Caravans, zebras, rabbits, and foxes.

18. Guests spend evenings sated by his hospitality,
As if their times were pierced with aromatic spices.

19. If his hunting falcon craved his carrier’s flesh,
Morsels of it would serve the bird raw portions.

20. He knows no stinginess with wealth or children -
Only when guests begin to depart does sorrow visit him.

21. The echo of the land relates from his leftovers only
Pure, clear honey wine in cascades.

22. His swords time the hours with spilt blood,
As if the hour were booty taken captive.

23. Souls circle around him mixed -
Among them foes, sheep, and camels.

24. Distance does not deprive those far from their share of him,
Nor are messages unable to reach him.

25. He led both parties among their peers -
The whites guided, the browns misguided.

26. His reports show multiples of his appearance:
Among men, there is water, family, and wealth.

27. Though his envious enemy calls him mad
When minds mix and some intellect is trammeled.

28. With them he routs the army, he and they must
Split it open, even were the army mountains.

29. When enmity extends its claws in them
Neither patience nor dignity can unite them.

30. Endless open defiance makes him their terror -
The turns of fate are treacherous.

31. He attained the highest glory by his precedence -
So what was attained by the caution of those who came after?

32. When kings are adorned, his adornment
Is smooth Yemeni shoes, heels stacked.

33. Abu Shuja’, Abu al-Shuj’an altogether!
He is an awe growing from terrors, awes.

34. He has taken ownership of praise until no boaster has
Any ha or meem or daal in praise.

35. Upon it he wears double garments -
A single Sirbal sufficed him.

36. How can I conceal the favor you have shown me
When you have poured out attainment in streams?

37. You refined your view of my filial devotion and honored me -
The generous contrive ways to favor the exalted.

38. Until you became the means for news to wander
And the stars to hope in your palms.

39. My praise of you grew long as your mantle -
Praise of the excellent is more excellence.

40. If you disdain to strut among mortals,
Your ordainment among ordainments contends.

41. As if your soul will not satisfy you, its companion,
Unless you excel the excellent.

42. Do not think to protect its essence
Unless for it you are formidable in awe.

43. If not for hardship all people would master
Generosity, though courage kills.

44. A man achieves only his capacity -
Not every beast bears burdens.

45. We are in a time when most people forsake
Goodness and favor overall.

46. Talk of the youth is his second life, his need
What he fought, and the excess of life is work.