1. A tribe of lovely maidens or statues resembling them,
Or Bedouin girls free of defects?

2. Alas! Where are the lovely maidens when beauty
Is attributed to little girls?

3. If they resemble the maidens, it's in simplicity and ethics,
Not in beauty and pleasant scent.

4. They are those whose love, though they shed my blood,
Torments me with sweet agony.

5. What do I have to do with singing girls? I'm deceived
By their phantom union which is false.

6. I have an overwhelming passion that I cannot conquer,
And determination towards them that is defeated.

7. Like bracelets on a wrist reddened with blood,
Not hennaed for adornment.

8. Indeed, they placed a heavy burden on delicate,
Weak frames and frail bodies.

9. My blaming an ardent lover is like a whip
Pouring torture upon the tortured.

10. O Saad, question a lofty dune about a pleasant night,
Veiled from us by lances' points.

11. Marvel at a body beside a reserve camel, stretched out,
And a heart among riders broken with fatigue.

12. He smiles innocently, not seducing with his glances
Or setting snares for the lions.

13. The freshness of youth circulates in his rosy cheek
Infusing hearts with longing like wine.

14. Seek not my blood from him, for blood
Was shed by love though not sought.

15. Alas! A girl white like day appeared a stranger
Among gloomy ruins.

16. I long for the tender days of my childhood
With yearning of an infant for its mother.

17. O gray hair! If you wish for youth, you have destroyed it,
Taking the best of what accompanies me.

18. You prevented me from she I love, so do not be surprised
If you are unloved though mature.

19. Return to me the remnants of my youth, and restore
What the hands of time stole from me.

20. If gray hair were not considered a flaw,
White would not abandon passion for gray.

21. O fate! Take me not on your accustomed path,
And promise me something other than lies.

22. Everyday your twists bring me wonders,
And time is full of marvels.

23. I'm not pleased with what you took, considering
The wisdom and experience you gave me.

24. How much I loathe getting from you, but will you
For once grant me what I love?

25. The hands of misfortune disciplined me in the manners
Of gentle compassion - what discipline!

26. Would that they had disciplined their own character
And adopted good conduct from Joseph the Truthful.

27. The just king who relieved every suffering
By his justice willed by God.

28. Defender of Islam's borders from India,
With hearts of lions and striking swords.

29. With each old, polished Indian sword
And each lofty Toledo blade.

30. Maids whose mounts are brought near, with bare blades,
Never sheathed on days of peace or war.

31. The sultan of God's land whose spears
Guaranteed victory for every oppressed.

32. He spread the shade of justice over the land
Uniting wolf and sheep.

33. He poured beneficial dew hoped for in its downpours
And restrained a might feared like death.

34. So people are either hopeful and bold,
Or afraid of his power and terrified.

35. The pure, august, of noble traits, lineage,
Dress, pocket, and robes.

36. Son of the magnificent, splendid house, the refined,
Nurtured insublime ethics.

37. Smiling with unconcealed serene brows
Crowned on days of peace.

38. They have faces, that if unveiled, surpass
The sun's brilliance in beauty.

39. The lamps in sanctuaries that prostrate before their beauty,
Which enrich the land and ignite wars by merely glimpsing them.

40. When the night of trials grows dark they raise for it
Torches upon lofty pillars.

41. How often they took the souls of knights in fright,
Yet forgave faults and misdeeds.

42. They regained stolen rights, of the Abbasids
Through the lances' curvature, not force.

43. How many fine qualities they have, and deeds
Inscribed upon the brows of mankind.

44. I hold a bond to them, its rope neither frail
Nor severed by betrayal.

45. O king! Who subdued kings sometimes by forcibly
Vanquishing, other times by deterrence.

46. You repaired the people of this world, and without you
Islam would have been deserted.

47. You watered our thirsty hopes with copious,
Continuous bursts of gifts.

48. To your generosity, O noble Joseph, we had
A longing like Jacob's for Joseph.

49. It is unthinkable that you would favor unequally
Or send gifts without order and arrangement.

50. You granted me equally with those whose doctrine
And style I do not share.

51. Without innovation, for clouds never ceased
To pour on the undeserving.

52. My competence in what I know is acquired,
And fortune is not earned.

53. They preceded me in praising you, but recognize
My precedence and recompense.

54. I deemed them first, and they arrived, so who
Is more entitled to benevolence and favor from me?

55. I am not one who regrets what is gone
Of a gift rapidly exhausted and bestowed.

56. But it is a scheme by which my superiority
Is challenged, and that is the worst mount.

57. My poetry, O Lord of all poetry without exception!
Can the Lord ever be compared to the created?

58. With meteoric inspiration and words
Like well-honed swords.

59. Kings of horizons asked for it in marriage
While you, above all people, are my suitor.

60. To Salah Al-Din hopes clung like a pile
Of burdensome difficulties.

61. Their hearts pound to a vast, noble pavilion
At the Citadel’s highest point.

62. They wish for a sea whose streams their people
Visit with delegation and welcome.

63. They flourish in its shade and by reaching it
The destitute thrive in plenty and overflow.

64. Our thoughts flow in praise of him clearly,
Laden with eulogy.

65. We clothe him in praise, its clothes everlasting,
For praise is his eternal attire.

66. A rain cloud of generosity whose lightning we smelled,
So it poured on the desolate ruins.

67. With heavy downpour for the loyal, and bolts
Striking the enemy aflame.

68. He fulfilled my prayer from Iraq though
I made it heard in Upper Egypt.

69. He brought the distant refugee near, though
I exerted no effort or approach to him.

70. His munificence knocked on my door, its good tidings reached me,
Though I did not knock on his with my poems.

71. May we never be devoid of your continuous generosity,
Poured abundantly.

72. Nor may your anticipated generosity lack
Eulogies brought to it.