1. The censor betrayed him, so his conscience stung him,
And he held back his tears, but they flowed forth.

2. He who hides his love, the day they parted, was distraught,
While he who sheds tears cannot disguise his inner feelings.

3. Were it not for the captivating charms of a fawn, I would not have fallen for them,
Nor for their alluring eyes and faces.

4. The pearls between the lips of the wild cows are wine,
Mingled with musk that mingles with it.

5. Sheep, pretty, with lowered eyes, and black, bashful, gazing,
Red, with fluttering eyelids, and black, with languishing eyes.

6. The illness of his eyes has wearied me,
And he has burdened me with passion too heavy for my burdens to carry.

7. Oh you who have power over my soul and torture me,
And slay my heart though it would defend me!

8. With the return of the glorious state a second time,
I found solace from you, while the sleepless spent their nights awake,

9. After my nights had no dawn,
As if the first day of the resurrection were its last.

10. The prince left and goodness left the land.
Its pulpits almost wept for want of his name.

11. Even the settlements complained of missing the living,
And the tombs told of the sorrow of the dead.

12. Until canopies were pitched over him,
Both his rural and his urban subjects cried “God is most great!”

13. And joy was renewed that no gloom could dispel,
Nor any youthful folly disturb in a heart it lodged with.

14. When Homs was devoid of you it did not remain devoid,
For he who rose early never watered it from the water-skin.

15. You entered it while the rays of the sun burned bright,
And the light of your face shone among the people.

16. With a coat of mail that if you had hurled it
Would have turned back the course of fate in its orbits.

17. The processions and the eyes pass looking
To the auspicious king, good fortune its standard-bearer.

18. The full moon has declined in a mortal frame, his crown,
In his coat of mail a lion with bloodied claws.

19. Sweet are his qualities and his realities glorious.
Pebbles are counted before his glorious deeds are counted.

20. The world is too narrow for his troops, though it expand
Like his chest none of his forces would be seen in it.

21. When the mind of a person delves into some
Part of his glory, his own thoughts become drowned.

22. Swords protect his enemies as if
They are his sons or his tribes.

23. When he prepares them for battle they leave no body
Without displaying its insides to the eyes outside.

24. Thus he was certain that the truth was in his hand,
And he was confident that God was his supporter.

25. He left the tribe of Banu ‘Auf and Tha‘labah
As corpses without heads as their pardon.

26. He plunged into the sea of death behind them
And it flooded up to his knees.

27. Until his steed halted from the striking,
And no hooves trampled corpses on the ground before it.

28. How much blood has its blade drunk,
And how many brains its sharp edges reached!

29. How many skulls did the tips of spears play with!
So it lived and vultures visited it!

30. Whoever says you are not the best of all people,
Then his ignorance in your eyes should pardon him.

31. Or doubts that you are unique in their time,
Then let my soul be pledged against his.

32. Oh you whom I seek refuge with
For what I aspire to, and seek sanctuary from what I fear!

33. I imagined that the sea was your calm resort
And that your gifts were its pearls.

34. People cannot set fractures that you will break,
Nor can they set fractures that you will heal!