1. I confide my passion to you though you are deaf to my complaints,
How can I expect sympathy from one so indifferent?

2. My friends are wearied of hearing my laments for you,
Yet I am not tired of singing your praises.

3. If my affection for you remains unquenched,
I shall hang like a necklace on the slender neck of the beloved.

4. Nights of my vanished youth will never return
Nor broken vows of love keep their trysts with me.

5. Since reunion with my love seems unattainable
And the door of desire barred to me,

6. My heart, do not grieve for lost youth,
For sweet memories of loves now faded.

7. Your first nights of love and rapture
Can never come back to you, nor youth itself.

8. What use recalling the nights of desire
If the springtime of life comes not back to me?

9. At night the rustling of leaves
In the gently waving branch of the wild plum tree

10. Kept me awake, though from his bosom
Came no echo of my love, no hint of my loss.

11. The clustering stars reunited not those
Parted by fate, nor did the nights join us.

12. I say this while dawn dispels the night
And sleep seals my eyes weighed by its touch.

13. O night of cruel separation, did you come
By his betrayal, or your own dark destinies?

14. O long night of tardy stars, your length shortened
By two waving branches of the wild plum, delicate and slender.

15. I toyed with them until the darkness lifted,
My hands wandering over necklaces and plaits.

16. Sipping from a cup as cool as crystal,
Embracing a form slender as a sapling.

17. When her tresses cast shadows over me,
Her lips gave me wine from the cup to drink.

18. She made me taste a magic potion
As if she were a houri of Paradise, heavenly and pure.

19. A prince whose generous hand swore
To grant her whatever she asked.

20. Of lofty lineage, a pillar of his house,
Generous, open-handed, a castle of munificence.

21. Braver than the keenest blade, resolute in purpose,
More decisive in judgement than even the swarthy fates.

22. The horizons narrow when he travels on his way
Though his heart is broader than the wilds themselves.

23. He shatters mountains as effortlessly as
Their summits, firm-rooted, cleave the skies.

24. For him no gates of favour remain closed
Nor doors of bounty locked, by that noble people,

25. Whose generous nature overflow their gifts
As freely as the new-born's innocence.

26. They respond at once when you call them
And run to help when you need their aid.

27. He is the son of heroes, swords sheathed
In the shoulders of warriors gigantic in frame.

28. Baghdad saw in him her staunchest defender
And gave over her affairs to his sound judgement;

29. He restored her former glory through justice
And her voice grew sweet as the lute.

30. He opened the roads for those seeking relief
And strengthened her walls on every side,

31. Saving her from the blows of fate.
Through him she foresaw whatever was to come.

32. Yet he relied not on others but on himself
To raise his fathers' glory yet higher;

33. Nor was he content to live as his people had,
Or build and manage as they did.

34. Abu'l Fadl, your excellence remains unmatched,
Your peerlessness acknowledged by all mankind.

35. To your enemies you are death, irresistible,
Pursuing them relentlessly, allowing no escape.

36. No tribe of misshapen outcasts can equal you
Nor human artifacts match God's flawless design.

37. You destroy all hostile hosts,
And defeat each attacking army.

38. You are mild when peaceful, a gift of God,
And fierce when warlike, leading the brave.

39. So I string these feeble verses
To make a necklace praising you alone

40. And tell of your magnificence, weakening not
In relating the noble deeds I have heard.

41. My hesitant and stumbling words cannot capture
The sublime beauty of your noble qualities.

42. I have compared you to none but yourself,
For none can equal your unmatched excellence.

43. So spare no effort in your generosity,
For I have strained my utmost in praising you.

44. Live on shedding luster on the nights
In a glory and fame that will never fade,

45. Showing might beyond all reverse,
Power unlimited by hostile forces.